Love in All Forms
by Malakia
Summary: Cyberdoll is a computer geek working at G.I. Joe headquarters, and happens to be in love with Snake Eyes. Sadly, she doesn't believe they can have a relationship because of their differences. But things have a tendency to change. SExOC
1. Chapter 1

Okay so this is my first ever G.I. Joe story and for everyone just to tell you I know NOTHING sboout G.I. Joe except for the new movie and a few little things I've picked up here and there (independent research, G.I. Joe: Resolute). SO, yeah a lot of things might be wrong so maybe if you could PM I will try my best to fix my mistakes ^_^'

But this is just a little story I made up and felt the need to share. It's actually just pretty pointless just Romance really. And I'm also making it short like maybe six or seven chapters.

Hasbro owns G.I. Joe, not me. Though Cyberdoll is mine.

* * *

Cyberdoll stared at the screen in front of her that monitored any Cobra activity. She groaned as she looked at her wrist watch to see it was almost 2. A.M. 'Damn I hate the night shift,' she thought stretching. Okay, so maybe not hate, she actually loved the solitude and being able to sleep during the day, but she at least had Breaker to talk to. Unfortunately, the hacker was under the weather so she was by herself and was in utter need of companionship.

She groaned again as she placed her head on the counter rolling it back and forth trying to stay awake. 'Stay awake, must stay awake,' she thought.

Just then the smell of coffee wafted into her nostrils. "Mmmm…," she said picking up her head.

"Thought you'd be needing this," Cover Girl laughed, placing a cup down of steaming coffee next to her.

"Thanks," Cyberdoll said grabbing it and taking a sip. "So what are you doing up so early?"

"Just got back from a mission…. Snake Eyes was on it you know," Cover Girl said slyly.

"Really now," Cyberdoll said trying to be nonchalant as she took another sip of her coffee.

"Yeah, maybe you should, I don't know, TALK to him sometime?" Cyberdoll snorted.

"And tell him what? Be like 'Hey how ya doing? Glad to see you back', then walk away? We have nothing in common, Cover Girl. He's a ninja who's out in the front line while I'm a computer geek who sits at a desk cracking codes." She pushed up the glass on her nose to prove her point as she sent Cover Girl a look.

"Alright, alright I get it. But you can't deny you're hopelessly in love with him."

"And what about you and Shipwreck?"

"…Touché," Cover Girl said watching as Cyberdoll took another sip of her coffee. "So anyway, anything interesting happening?"

"Nope not really, screens been pretty blank but…." Cyberdoll quickly looked around for anyone before whispering, "I do have a new program on my computer you might get a kick out of."

"But you know-"

"Yeah I know," Cyberdoll interrupted getting out her laptop and typing in her access code. "But I won't bore you like Breaker does; my program is entertaining for everyone. It's a baby generator."

"A what?"

"A baby generator. Here let me show you." Cyberdoll clicked an icon on her laptop screen. With swift fingers she pulled up pictures of Cover Girl and Shipwreck which appeared on either side of the screen. "Now watch and learn," Cyberdoll laughed as she hit 'enter'.

Instantly the computer the computer scanned both faces like facial recognition and new face formed between the two. "Ta da! This would be yours' and Shipwrecks' love child and I must say," Cyberdoll said looking at the picture. "It ain't that pretty."

"Hey!" Cover Girl said, playfully punching her friend in the arm as they both laughed. "So how did you get this?" Cover Girl asked finally.

"A friend of mine sent it to me in an email," Cyberdoll said with a smile.

"Are you serious?"

"Oh yeah, you think Breaker is the only techno nerd I know?"

"Well no…. Anyway let's mess around with your baby generator some more," Cover Girl said leaning toward the screen excitedly. Cyberdoll laughed as she quickly scanned through pictures in the G.I. Joe database.

"Ok then how 'bout…. Heavy Duty and Beyoncé." Quickly the screen pulled up the pictures and scanned them before a new face came up. "Not bad, not bad at all."

"Very cute," Cover Girl agreed. The two women looked at each other before busting out laughing. This continued for awhile until Cover Girl slapped Cyberdoll's shoulder with a devious thought.

"Do Scarlett and Duke!" she said excitedly.

"What? Are you crazy? You know what would happen if either one of those two caught me?"

"Well it's only us two. Come on, you know you want to see what their kid would look like just as much as I do."

"Alright, alright," Cyberdoll said as she typed it in. Scarlett and Duke's picture pulled up and scanned them. A new picture formed in the middle and both women tilted their heads in pleasant surprise.

"They would have a very cute child," Cover Girl said.

"I agree. Now who haven't we've done yet?" Cover Girl smirked.

"What about you and Snake Eyes?" Cyberdoll raised an eyebrow sending Cover Girl another look.

"One problem with that, his face is hidden behind a mask. So unless you can get a picture of him without him wearing his mask, it's out of the question."

"Fine then, I'll just ask Scarlett. I'm sure she's got some pictures, after all they're both like brother and sister."

"Sorry, not even I'm that lucky," a new voice said behind them. Instantly both girls stood rigid in their seats looking straight ahead with a-deer-in-a-headlight look. Slowly they turned in their swerving chairs to meet Scarlett with a bemused look on her face. Next to her was none other then Snake Eyes with his arms crossed over his chest with his usual unreadable expression.

"Uh hey Scarlett. Snake Eyes," Cover Girl said as Cyberdoll quickly exited of the program and put her computer away.

"Hey. Having fun?" Scarlett teased.

"Uh, yeah," Cover Girl said as she looked over at Cyberdoll. The technician refused to look at any of them, watching the monitor with a dark blush on her face. "Uh, so what are you guys doing here?" Cover Girl asked looking back at the two.

"Delivering Cyberdoll's mail," Scarlett said holding out a large cardboard box. Snake Eyes likewise unfolded his arms, showing a small stake of envelopes.

Forgetting her shyness, Cyberdoll swerved around, eyes a light with excitement as she took the box from Scarlett. "Oh! Did it come already?" she wondered out loud, grabbing the pocket knife from her boot and practically ripping the package open.

"Ha ha!" she laughed gleefully as she peeked inside and closing it before anyone could see it. She then looked back at everyone. "What?" she asked innocently at the questioning looks. Snake Eyes shook his head, an unknown smile gracing his lips, as he handed her the rest of her mail.

Cyberdoll gave a nervous smile as she took her mail, her heart rate increasing as their fingers brushed. Quickly she deposited the mail on top of the box, glanced at the screen then back at the group. "Anything else I can help you with?" she asked.

"No, so me and Snake Eyes will be taking are leave," Scarlett said. She looked at Cover Girl saying, "And you should too."

"But I want to know what's in the box!"

"As if I'd tell you," Cyberdoll said looking at the monitor.

"But, but-"

"Come on," Scarlett laughed grabbing Cover Girl by the arm and lifting her up.

The three operatives were about to reach the door when suddenly sirens started going off and the emergency lights turned on. Immediately their heads snapped over to Cyberdoll who was typing frantically on the computer. "What's going on?" demanded Scarlett as she rushed over her.

Cyberdoll didn't respond as she continued typing frantically with a panicked look on her face. The three of them gathered around impatiently as they waited for a response. What they weren't expecting was Cyberdoll suddenly turning violent when she slapped the console, angrily yelling,

"Damn it! We're being hacked!"

* * *

R&R PLEASE!!!!!!


	2. Chapter 2

WOOHO! This is probably the fastest I've ever posted a second chapter. I didn't think my story would be this popular. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and here are some questions that people wanted answered:

**OceanSapphire:** No, it's not her real name it's her code name. I'm going to slowly drop hints about her life as the story progresses.

**Evenstar-mor2004: **I'm not going to tell you, it's going to be a surprise. ;D

Thanks again to everyone who reviewed and even looked at this story.

Oh, I forgot to put in the last chapter that I would like thank NCIS for the idea of the baby generator (it's was called Morph Pro in the tv show) and also for the idea in this chapter (if you can figure it out I'll give you cookies!).

Again I don't own G.I. Joe, so on with the story!

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Scarlett, Snake Eyes, and Cover Girl all froze in shock. Someone was trying to hack into G.I. Joe? "Is it Cobra?" Scarlett asked snapping out of her stupor into serious mode. She leaned down near the screen, using one hand to steady herself while the other griped the back of Cyberdoll's chair as the technician continued to type frantically.

"I can't tell, they're moving to quickly through the system for me to put a trace on them. Cover Girl!" she snapped looking away for the monitor, over to her. "Get Breaker, NOW! I need him!" She then looked back of the screen continuing where she left off.

"R-Right," Cover Girl said turning toward the door. But Snake Eyes beat her to the punch and was already out of the room. "Ah… Snake Eyes' got it," she said looking back at Cyberdoll. Cyberdoll ignored her and continued typing.

Just then the doors opened again allowing General Hawk to come in. "What's the statues of the situation?" he demanded as he approached the girls. None of them spoke making him impatiently put his hands on his hips. "Well?"

"We don't know Sir," Scarlett said glancing at the screen full of number sequences.

"Someone hacked into our system," Cyberdoll said never looking away.

"Cobra?" he asked leaning toward Cyberdoll.

"Can't tell. Right now, I'm trying to figure out what they're trying hack into."

"You keep doing that," Hawk said. "Someone go find-"

"Right here Sir," Breaker said rushing in as he put on his jacket. A small group followed behind him concern and panic etched on their faces.

"Good man," Hawk said. "Help Cyberdoll with anything you can." Breaker nodded as Hawk moved out of the way for him.

"What you got?" Breaker asked looking at the number sequences.

"Whoever these people are they're flying through the system," Cyberdoll said with a glance in his direction. "I'm trying to find out what their target is but right now I need you to do a back trace on these bastards."

"On it," Breaker said, momentarily taken aback by the cuss word. He got up and moved over to the central hub and began typing.

"Sir, is there anything we can do?" asked one of the technicians to the Moroccan. Breaker glanced at the man then over his shoulder to Cyberdoll.

"No, Cyberdoll's got it covered. Just-"

"They're going after the weapons log!" Cyberdoll suddenly yelled jumping to her feet.

"What!?" Breaker yelled looking at her wide eyed.

"They're going for the weapons log!" Cyberdoll frantically said, rushing over to another computer station, pushing people who got in her way. "They're making a bee line for it!" She began typing frantically on the computer not even bothering to sit.

"Heavy Duty, she'll need your username and password to get inside the log," Breaker said turning to the tall British African.

"Right," Heavy Duty responded making his way over to her.

"The rest of you, go man your stations and monitor the hackers progress," Breaker yelled before turning back to the job at hand. A resounding "Yes, Sir" filled the room followed by the scrambling of feet. The rest of the Joes that could fit in the room stayed close to the walls, with the exceptions of Hawk, who paced the room observing the activity, and Heavy Duty, who was still standing next to Cyberdoll.

"Here, give me your password," Cyberdoll said moving out of the way. Heavy Duty did as he was told and stood back as Cyberdoll took over again.

"What are you doing?" Heavy Duty asked watching the crunching number sequences not understanding any of it.

"I'm backing up the files and am going to create a false hard drive-"

"In English please!"

"I'm making a virtual copy of the log that will give the hacker's useless information once they're in," Cyberdoll huffed sending him a glare while she kept typing.

"Well why didn't you say so?"

"I WAS!" she hissed. The screen went green indicating the virtual hard drive was ready. "Where are the hackers?!" Cyberdoll yelled looking around.

"Heading straight your way!" someone yelled. She looked back at the screen anxiously waiting.

A few tense seconds later the screen turned red and Cyberdoll slammed the 'enter' button. "There," she said running toward the central hub. "That should hold them off."

"Is it full proof?" Hawk asked.

"Definitely," she said as she stood next to Breaker and started typing. "I'm going to create a false hard drive for the rest of the system just incase they get through with the fake weapons log; unless Breaker finds out who's behind this."

"Working on it," he curtly said.

"Keep it up you two," Hawk said. "Alpha team," he called turning toward them. Duke, Ripcord, Scarlett, Snake Eyes, and Heavy Duty came up, standing ready for action. "Be ready for the first sign of any indication if this is Cobra's doing. I'll be sending you out immediately, understand?"

"Yes, Sir!" they all said, Snake Eyes inclining his head to indicate he got it.

"Good. For now I want you to stay here. The rest of you!" he yelled looking around at the rest of the Joes. "Get to your stations and be ready for anything!"

"Sir, yes Sir!" Everybody then scrambled about trying to get out of the room when they all stopped when Breaker yelled, "I found them!"

"Put them up on the main screen!" Hawk said. Breaker did as he was told and everybody completely froze in shock, not expecting who the hacker actually was.

The C.I.A.

"What the-" Ripcord started to say when a voice cut him off.

"Congratulations General Hawk, you passed your assessment." The hologram of a balding aged man stepped out of the central hub with a smug smile.

"Thank you Mr. Secretary of Defense," the general said tightly. "Hopefully next time I would appreciate a little heads up."

"Sorry General," the secretary said. "But we couldn't. We wanted it to be as real as possible. But think of it this way, your unit has the best time so far."

"A great honor," Hawk said dryly. He looked over at his team seeing them trying to restrain their anger. The only two exceptions to the rule was Snake Eyes, who always had better control of his body language and emotions, and Cyberdoll, who was glaring at the hologram with an annoyed expression and her arms folded across her chest. He caught her eyes and sent her a warning look.

Unfortunately the Secretary of Defense noticed and looked over at Cyberdoll. "A Miss Cohen-"

"Cyberdoll," she interrupted, casting a glance to everyone in the room. Her eyes momentarily rested on Snake Eyes longer than necessary before looking at the secretary.

"Cyberdoll," he said with an incline of his head still wearing that smug smile. "Exceptional work as usual, G.I. Joe has such an honor to have you."

Cyberdoll nodded, holding back a snide comment that just wanted to be let loose.

"Well I must be off," the secretary said looking back at Hawk. "Other assessments must be done."

"Of course," Hawk said watching as the hologram disappeared.

"What the hell!?" Ripcord yelled. "I bet that guy gets a kick out of watching us run around!"

"At ease Ripcord," Hawk said. "It has to be done."

"But he could have at least given YOU a heads up, Sir," Duke said.

"Yeah!" Ripcord supported. While Ripcord went on his rant, Snake Eyes took a chance to look over at Cyberdoll.

Her body was lax, leaning almost for support on the main computer. Her head was slightly down and he could see the lack of sleep was getting to her when he was able to look at her eyes. She looked sickly pale and had bags under her eyes that only added to how older she looked than she probably was.

Others took notice of this too and Hawk finally said something, stopping Ripcord's rant. "Cyberdoll."

"Yes Sir?" she said standing up straighter. Hawk looked at her critically.

"You're relieved of you station for today. Go and get some sleep."

"Are you sure, Sir?" she asked glancing at the nearest digital clock. "I've got at least another hour on my watch."

"Go get some sleep. That's an order soldier," he said with a smile.

"Yes Sir," she said trying to leave the relief out of her voice.

Quietly she scrambled over to her original station. "Excuse me," she mumbled to the new person sitting in her chair as she picked up her bag and mail. She felt someone put a hand on her shoulder and turned around to see Snake Eyes.

Gently he grabbed the box in her hands, pulling on it slightly. This caused Cyberdoll to smile and fighting down a blush. "Nah, it's okay Snake Eyes; I got it." Before Snake Eyes could respond, she quickly went around him and out the door to her room.

When the door closed Ripcord looked over at Snake Eyes with a playful smirk. "Ouch, that's got to be a burn."

Snake Eyes sent him a glare.

"Ah come on Rip, lay off," Duke said as he punched his friend in the arm.

"What? I can't make fun of our ninja friend cause he can't get a date?"

"I wasn't trying to flirt with her," Snake Eyes signed with Scarlett translating. "The girl looks like she was going to pass out any second."

"It's just because she works so hard," Cover Girl said more to herself. "She told me she feels bad for being a noncombatant and works super hard to make up for it."

"She's going to out herself in an early grave," Breaker agreed. "I've never heard her cuss until today; the lack of sleep and her anger must have gotten the best of her."

"Alright, alright that's enough," Hawk said. "Enough gossiping, don't you all have some work to do?"

Taking the hint everyone quickly moved out of the room, leaving the rest of the technicians to their work.


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

GOAL! CHAPTER 3 UP IN LESS IN THAN A WEEK! GO ME!!!!

Anyway thanks to everyone who reviewed my story and even faved it. You're all the best! I still can't believe how well this story is doing (seriously everytime I check my email and see something new I still go 'WTF!?' LOL XD)

**OceanSapphire**: I'm sorta going by the movieverse so Duke and Ripcord are new to the team and haven't yet really picked up on sign language. As for why it's Scarlett I chose her because her and Snake Eyes have this sort of Brother-Sister relationship going.

**Agrabah's Princess**: There are some unbelievable SE/OC stories? Please explain this to me.

BTW **AF Iron 135** figured out what I was talking about and got the cookie! CONGRATS! And also I know this the beginning of this chapter my seem like a new story BUT IT'S NOT! I'm introducing a new character and I tend to like to take my time doing so. ALSO school has started taking over my life again and it my be awhile before I can post again (I'm already behind on some of my school work! Bad me T_T). And I'm also sorry for my bad grammar and spelling but I can't help it. I can re-read and re-read but sometimes I miss things and sometimes mistakes look right to me.

Anyway on with the story! I no own G.I. Joe but Cyberdoll and the new character are mine.

* * *

"So how do you like G.I. Joe so far Rain?" Cover Girl asked the new recruit as they walked down the hall.

"It's certainly different," commented the dirty blonde with a smile. "But I think I'll like it here."

"I'm glad," Cover Girl said stopping at a door. "This is your room. I'm afraid I can't show you around but I suggest that if you do explore your room, do it QUIETLY," she said stressing the word.

"Why?" Rain asked raising an eyebrow.

"G.I. Joe never rests; we're on duty 24/7. Sadly no one, except for your roommate, are able to stay up all night and still be able to function properly. She works at night then sleeps through the day and many of us don't disturb her, plus a couple of nights ago we had a fake hack in that she's still trying to recover from. All we ask is for you to keep quiet while she sleeps." Rain nodded, noting the seriousness in her voice. "Well if you'll excuse me," Cover Girl said. "I have to get back on duty. But to remind you, you need to be at your station at 0900."

"Yes, Ma'am," rain saluted as Cover Girl walked away. She relaxed with a sigh and shifted her bag on her shoulder. She smiled as she recalled the details of what Cover Girl gave her about her new roommate. "Reminds me of someone I used to know," she said out loud as she punched in the access code and opened the door.

When she turned on the overhead light, it surprised her first to see how it looked like a regular apartment; well more or less so. It opened up to a small hallway that led in a comfortable size living room. It had a good size couch with a coffee table and a plasma TV. A mini fridge was to one side of the room and at the other was another hallway that, Rain assumed, led to the bedrooms and bathroom.

Making sure her boots didn't make to much noise, she crossed the room and went down the hallway. One door was closed while the other two doors were wide open, one next to the closed door on her right and the other one at the end of the hall revealing a full sized bathroom. Quietly she passed the closed door, glancing curiously at it, and went into her room.

The bedroom was sparsely furnished with an adult twin sized bed with a nightstand, a small desk with a lamp that was pushed up against the wall, and a small closet. With a thug her rut sack fell to the floor as she went about inspecting the room.

She opened the closet first seeing where she hang her clothes and put her shoes as well as a small set of dresser drawers. Silently she closed the closet and moved toward the bed and sat down, surprised to find it was actually comfortable. She then listened and was happy to hear no noise. 'Good,' she thought. 'The walls are at least sound proof or my roommate doesn't snore.' She then fell back on the bed with a sigh.

"Well this sucks," she said out loud. "I had hoped my roommate would be here to show me around…." She looked up at the ceiling thinking about what Cover Girl said about her roommate. "Bet K.C. would get along great with her…. Man I miss her…."

She suddenly sat up, pushing that thought aside. To distract herself she started thinking about how she should go check on her new roommate, to see if she was alive.

'Okay so I know she ALIVE but do I really want to get on the rest of the G.I. Joe bad side?' She thought it over for a minute before a devious smile crossed her face. 'Who cares what the Joes think and besides it's only going to be a peek.'

Deftly she exited her room and went over to her roommates. She looked at the access pad and typed in her own bedroom code hoping that they were the same and, with surprising luck, they were. The door unlocked and carefully Rain opened the door.

The room was in complete darkness and from the little light she had Rain could see the room was a mirror copy of her own. She peeked in further to see a massive lump on the bed but couldn't see much else. Daring herself, she stepped in further allowing more hallway light to filter into the room. Now she could make out more of the bed and was able to see a little bit of the persons face. 'Nah, it couldn't be,' she thought frowning.

Quietly she crept further into the room. She was almost to the bed when she stepped on the floor and it creaked. She froze as she heard the person mutter something unintelligible and turned toward her. Rain's frown suddenly turned into a delightful surprised smile.

"K.C.!" she yelled tackling the person on the bed.

The person let loose a blood curdling scream and tried to fend off her unknown attacker. She tried to reach blindly for the gun under her pillow but the weight was too much.

"K.C.! It's me Jenna!" Rain said pushing herself up to face the girl eye to eye.

The woman froze at the name and squinted before her eyes became wide. "Jen…?"

"Hey, you still remember me!"

"Of course I do!" The woman yelled happily as she hugged her friend. "Who else could have helped me survive high school and college? God I've missed you!"

"I know me too! How long as it been? Fourteen? Fifteen years?" Rain laughed.

"Seems longer," the other woman joked. "Here just a minute." The woman reached over to her night table to grab her glasses and put them on. "Wow you haven't changed a bit!"

"But you have! I swear if I didn't know your face so well I wouldn't have recognized you!" This caused both women to laugh.

"Well hey can you get up? I think you popped my personal bubble," the other woman teased.

"When you're with me, you have NO personal bubble," Rain teases back as she stood up. The other woman followed suit revealing she was only wearing a tank top and shorts. "Wow you've lost weight," Rain said with of worry as she looked at her friend when the other woman turned on the bedroom light. "And you look a little paler too."

"Long nights," the woman said. "But when did you get here?"

"Just a couple of hours ago," Rain said.

"I thought Cover Girl would have given you a speech about not waking me up," the woman said knowing the general's secretary took care of showing new recruits to their quarters.

"She did," Rain said with a smirk. "But you know me and listening." The woman sighed.

"Some things never change with you."

"Yep. So since I did wake you up, care to show me around the ship?"

"Sure," the woman laughed. "Let e just get my pants and jacket on, okay?"

"Right! Cause I'm sure everyone wants to see you in your PJ's." Both woman laughed and hugged each other.

* * *

"Bro, tell me again why we have to work with again?" Ripcord asked swinging his arms back and forth, like doing a push up, to get the felling back in them. "To try and get to G.I. Joe quality," Duke said rubbing his shoulder. "But I do agree that I think he can over do it sometimes."

"Heh, no kidding." The duo walked into the recreation room to be pulled from their thoughts by the sound of laughter. Cyberdoll and some unknown dirty blonde haired, blue eyed woman were on the couch laughing hysterically to the point that tears were in their eyes.

"Well lookie her, our little vampires awake!" Ripcord saluted as the two girls calmed down. Upon hearing her nickname, Cyberdoll turned to look a the two men with a flushed look on her face.

"Hey, Duke. Hey Ripcord," she said smiling.

"I'm surprised to see you up, Cyberdoll," Duke said as they walked over to the women. "It's not even an hour before your shift starts."

"An old friend of mine just joined G.I. Joe," Cyberdoll said pointing to the woman next to her. "We were just catching up."

"Name's Jenna Walker, but you guys can call me Rain," the woman said holding out her hand.

"Nice to meet ya," Duke said shaking it.

"Neat name, but what does it have to do with your job?" Ripcord asked. Rain raised an eyebrow.

"Your name HAS to do with your job?" she asked.

"Usually," Ripcord said. "Hey what is your profession anyway?"

"I'm a bombardier pilot," Rain laughed. "As others have said I 'bring the RAIN'."

"Really now? You know," Ripcord said leaning toward her. "I'm a pilot myself." Duke rolled his eyes at hid friends flirting and smacked him on the head. "Hey!" Ripcord yelled, sending a glare toward him. Cyberdoll smiled saying,

"Don't worry Duke. Rain's on the Delta Team. You don't have to worry about Ripcord flirting with her."

"Yeah, cause I'm pretty sure I could drop kick him the minute he even TRIES to touch me," Rain added. Ripcord decided to ignore the comment instead focusing on Cyberdoll.

""What's this?" he asked teasing, as he pressed a finger to his ear and started shaking it like to clear something out of it. "Did Cyberdoll the Vampire just teased with me?" Cyberdoll's smile grew.

"I'm very playful, Ripcord. You're just never around to experience it."

"Either that or you're asleep," Ripcord said.

"Very true," Cyberdoll agreed.

"So anyway," Rain said interrupting the two. "Have any of these guys seen THE tattoo?"

"The tattoo?" Duke asked. Rain smiled as Cyberdoll started blushing.

"So I'll take that as a 'no'?' she said. She then looked over at the guys. "So none of you guys have seen THE tattoo? Or even heard about it?"

"This is news to us," Duke said.

"Oh this is great!" Rain said busting out laughing. "Almost going on fifteen years and still no guy has seen it!"

"Would you stop it!?" Cyberdoll yelled, her face now beet red.

"What's the big deal about a tattoo? I mean yeah, Duke and I are surprised Cyberdoll even HAS one but it's just a tattoo right?" Ripcord said.

"Wrong, my friend!" Rain said with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. "It is THE tattoo. She got that tattoo her freshmen year of high school on her hip stating, and I quote this, 'The only way I'm going to tell you what tattoo I got is if some guy can get into my pants'." It took a moment for the guys to process the information.

"So wait a minute," Ripcord said looking at Cyberdoll. "You're a virgin?" Cyberdoll bit her lip, shyly saying,

"Yeah…."

"Well I think it's cool," Duke said noticing her discomfort. "You're saving yourself for your husband right?" Actually he was thinking how in the world she would ever get a husband; she embodied what it meant to look like a geek. She constantly wore her uniform and always had her long brown hair up in a ponytail or bun. She wore glasses that covered her eyes and Duke was pretty sure that she needed a little sun on her skin, looking way to pale for it to be normal. Perhaps if she did that, maybe she could be considered pretty even with her current looks.

"Well at least for the right guy," Cyberdoll said snapping him out of his reverie.

"Face it honey," Rain said. "That ain't going to happen anytime soon."

Oh ye of little faith," Ripcord said dramatically. Just then the rest of Alpha Team walked through the door.

"Well hello boys," Scarlett said coming to stand next to Ripcord. "Have fun with Beach Head?"

"Yeah, loads," Ripcord muttered. Rain nodded sympathetically to Duke and Ripcord.

"I understand your pain," she said. "So anyway," she continued looking at everyone else, "who are you guys?"

"Name's Scarlett," the redhead said holding out a hand. "And you are…?"

"Rain," the dirty blonde said shaking her hand. Then Heavy Duty came up.

"The name's Heavy Duty," he said surprising Rain.

"Are you British?" she asked making him smirk.

"I was a member of the British Armed Forces," he said. "And my friend right here is Moroccan," he added as Breaker took her hand.

"Breaker," he said with a small smile.

"And Zen master over there is Snake Eyes," Ripcord said pointing to the black clad ninja over by his weapon rack. Snake Eyes turned to them, giving Rain a nod, before turning back. "He doesn't talk much," Ripcord added.

"Why's that?" Rain asked.

"He doesn't say," Breaker said. Rain gave him a dull look.

"It's a long standing joke in G.I. Joe," Cyberdoll explained.

"Ahhhh…!" Rain said. "What team are you guys part of?"

"We're all members of team Alpha," Duke said.

"Ohhh! So you all are the Alpha Team," Rain said, a wide smile growing across her lips as she looked at them. When her eyes rested lastly on Snake Eyes a mischievous glint came to them. She then looked at Cyberdoll who had her head down to hide a dark blush.

"Ah… okay then," Heavy Duty said observing the two women. "Exactly what did Cyberdoll tell you?"

"Just… stuff," she said mysteriously, still staring at Cyberdoll. The technician slightly raised her head to where their eyes met.

It freaked the members of Alpha Team out when both women remained quiet yet still had a complete conversation between them. Rain's smile grew into a smug while Cyberdoll sent her a glare. Rain then dropped her smile sending Cyberdoll a questioning look. In return, Cyberdoll dropped her glare, settling for an impassive look that one would assume if one was explaining something to someone. Rain then frowned and Cyberdoll sent her a warning look. Rain then sighed looking dejected.

Suddenly she did a complete 180˚, smiling brightly as she said, "You know I'm suddenly hungry. K.C., can you show me where the kitchen is?"

"Sure," Cyberdoll said quickly. Both her and Rain stood up and made their way toward the door. "See you on duty Breaker!" Cyberdoll called back as she passed through the door.

"Is it just me, or was that a little bit odd," Ripcord said after a moment of silence.

"No, it was weird," Breaker said going to sit on the couch. "But it must be a womanly thing."

"I resent that," Scarlett said.

"You don't count Scarlett," Heavy Duty said. "You're not close to any women except for Cover Girl." Scarlett frowned at the truth of this statement and turned to ask Snake Eyes his opinion. She stopped short though once she saw the ninja not doing his usual meditation but rather staring at the doors. She looked back at everyone, who also took notice of this.

Silently she walked toward him. "Hey," she whispered quietly snapping him out of his thoughts. "You okay?" He nodded before turning back to his weapon rack. She steeped beside him and placed a hand on his wrist causing him to look at her. "If you like her Snake, why don't you just tell her?" she asked worried, quietly enough so no one could hear. She knew she was heading into dangerous territory; Snake Eyes never talked about his feelings, yet she knew this was hurting him whether he showed it or not. And because the Alpha Team was so close everybody knew he felt something toward the technician whether he knew it or not (luckily they had managed to stop Ripcord from teasing him about it).

Snake Eyes shook his head and moved his hand away from hers. She thought for a moment he was going to sign something but instead he grabbed his two katanas and went over to his corner to exercise, dropping the subject. Scarlett sighed dejectedly before going back over to everyone.

Noticing their questioning looks she shook her head causing everyone to sigh. "Denial is not just a river in Egypt," Ripcord muttered. Conversation then turned toward something else, mostly Ripcord and Duke talking about how Beach Head need to lay off on his P.T..

* * *

REVIEW PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


	4. Chapter 4

WOO-HOO Chapter 4! Is up! And I'm not behind on my homework YAY! Glad you all like the last chapter and I hope you'll like this one too. Anywho...

**Superdani a.**: There is nothing wrong with being a virgin but I put it in there for foreshadowing purposes ;D

**HawaiianJen808**: Haha small world.

Thanks again for all the reviews KEEP IT UP! R AND R PLEASE!!!!! Okay now on with the story! I no own G.I. Joe or the song in this chapter just my characters! And I apologize before hand for any grammar and spelling mistakes.

* * *

Chapter 4

Cyberdoll groaned as she flopped down on the recreation room couch. She was absolutely exhausted. It had been about a couple of months since Rain had arrived at G.I. Joe and at first Cyberdoll was excited about it, now though, she wasn't so sure. Rain constantly kept her awake, like they did back in college. She wanted to talk or work out or make Cyberdoll eat when all she wanted to do was sleep. It was very tiresome to keep up with her friend then go on duty at night.

It had gotten so bad that Cyberdoll actually found herself sleeping on the couch in other people's quarters, but those times were always short lived as Rain always found out where she was and come and wake her up, starting the whole process all over again. Yet Cyberdoll didn't have the heart to say 'no' to her friend, after all Rain was expecting her to be like she was in high school and college; energetic, bubbly, and always ready for anything. And for the most part she was but after working the nightshift at G.I. Joe for God knows how many years it was starting to take its toll on her. She was barely functioning during the day (more than once she had fallen asleep in the shower) and she constantly noticed people's worried looks toward her making her feel bad, people should be more focused on terrorist happenings not her health.

She actually mentioned that once to Breaker, on one of her sleep deprived days where whatever was on her mind just came out, and ended up getting a reprimanding she never would forget. He had told her that G.I. Joe was a family and, like a family, everyone watched out for each other and if one member was pushing themselves to hard, everyone begins to worry. He also vocalized his dislike on how Rain seemed to be ignoring Cyberdoll's condition to which she snapped back that he needed to stay out of other people's business. She later apologized to him for what she had said but it did make her more aware of how people were looking at Rain.

She seemed to be well liked by everyone, especially by her teammates, but when Cyberdoll was with her people seemed to frown more, almost like they didn't like the fact that Rain constantly kept the late night technician awake. And this was more dutifully noted amongst General Hawk, Cover Girl, and the members of Aloha Team. Many times Hawk or Cover Girl would approach Cyberdoll asking if she needed any intervention to which she would promptly say 'no' to saying she could handle it. And because she worked so close with Breaker, members if Alpha Team have spoken to her on many occasions trying to offer some form of assistance, mostly to sleep in their quarters for her to get some rest. All with the exception of Snake Eyes who instead was seemingly content with throwing a glare towards Rain yet unknown to Cyberdoll he did his own special way of helping by, whenever Rain asked, leading her down false corridors or telling Breaker to get Cyberdoll somewhere else.

Sleepily Cyberdoll looked at the digital clock on the wall and groaned again. Rain would be getting off shift now meaning 5… 4… 3… 2…1….

"K.C.!"

Right on time.

Cyberdoll hoisted herself up to see Rain smiling from the doorway. "Hey," Cyberdoll said giving a sleepy smile.

"Hey yourself sleepy head," Rain said coming to sit next to her. "How you feelin'?"

"I'm fine," Cyberdoll lied. "What about you?"

"I'm FULL of energy!" Rain laughed. Cyberdoll laughed too but on the inside groaned in dismay. 'Oh this isn't going to lead anywhere good,' she thought. And it certainly wasn't.

"You know what?" Rain said.

"What?"

"We should go and exercise!"

"What is it with you and exercising?" Cyberdoll asked exasperated.

"Because someone has to keep you in shape," Rain said teasingly. Cyberdoll sent her a glare.

"I AM in shape."

"NOW, you are. Before you were just stick thin from not eating but now you have some meat on you AND you're exercising. Besides, since I know how uncomfortable you are with working out with other people around, I always make sure no one works out with us." Cyberdoll sat for a moment in thought.

"…Fine-"

"Yes!"

"But no hard labor, okay? I've got duty in about," she cast a glance at the clock. "Five hours."

"You got it!" Rain said hopping up and pulling Cyberdoll to her feet. "No hard labor."

As Cyberdoll was pulled out of the room she couldn't help but think if Rain knew the meaning of the phrase.

* * *

Hawk frowned as he looked at the progress reports for each member of G.I. Joe, currently looking at Cyberdoll's. "Cover Girl?"

"Yes Sir?" the blonde said looking up from her spot on the couch over to where he sat at his desk.

"Will you go find Cyberdoll and tell her she has a week's leave," he asked, his eyes never looking up from Cyberdoll's assessment papers.

"Certainly Sir but may I inquire why?"

"Her report says she's taking half as long for her to complete a task. I can't have any member of G.I. Joe falling behind because of lack of sleep," he said putting the paper down.

"Of course Sir," she said. "May I make a suggestion for future reference?"

"You may."

"Perhaps you should put Rain on a different shift?" she said a bit hopefully. Hawk frowned.

"You know that if I do that it would be more of a personal matter than one that affects G.I. Joe."

"Technically speaking Sir," she said. "It does affect G.I. Joe in a way. Cyberdoll is our top technician and being able to work on the nightshift is a blessing to us. And like you said Sir her work has been taking longer, but still just as good. Perhaps keeping her and Rain separate, Cyberdoll will go back to the way she was, maybe even better."

Hawk's eyes narrowed as he thought about it. Actually he had thought about this more than once but he didn't feel it was his place to separate the two lifelong friends. He had expected something when he invited Rain to join but nothing to this extreme. Finally he said,

"I'll take it into consideration but for now please do as I ask."

"Yes Sir," Cover Girl said getting up. Taking her electronic notepad, she saluted and left.

She made her way to the spots where Cyberdoll usually hung out at during the day yet had no luck finding the technician. Finally she came to the main hanger. She looked around but didn't locate Cyberdoll though she did spot the Alpha Team. Quickly she made her way over to them hoping they at least knew where Cyberdoll was.

"Hey guys," she said coming to stand next to them. "Have any of you seen Cyberdoll?"

"No, sorry," Scarlett said.

"Nope," Ripcord and Duke said.

"Not lately," said Heavy Duty.

"No, but I will see her tonight," said Breaker. Everyone looked over at Snake Eyes.

"Have you tried the gym?" he signed.

"Ah… no…," Cover Girl said. "She usually doesn't go there."

"Rain takes her there," he signed. Everyone looked at him oddly, including Duke and Ripcord who finally understood ASL.

"And you know this how…?" Ripcord asked.

"Sometimes when I go to the gym I see Cyberdoll and Rain leaving," he signed. He was thankful that he wore a mask to hide his flushed face.

"Right then…," Heavy Duty said with a smirk.

Frantically Snake Eyes signed, impressing that was just what it was and nothing more, making the members laugh. "Well thanks for your help Snakes," Cover Girl said. "I better go rescue Cyberdoll before Rain does anything else to her."

"We'll come with you," Ripcord said standing up. "We all need to work out anyway."

"All you want to do is just see some pretty girls working out," said Duke.

"Rain certainly, Cyberdoll maybe not so much," Ripcord said playfully. Nobody really noticed Snake Eyes stiffen slightly at the hurtful, though teasing, remark as he sent the pilot a silent glare.

Quickly they made their way to the gym area. It wasn't long till they were walking down the hall and heard the muted blare of the Black Eyed Peas "Let's Get It Started" coming from the room. "well someone's here," Cover Girl said typing in the access code.

When the door opened everyone froze. The large circular room was set up into three tiers. The bottom had a boxing ring surrounded by weight and the top was dedicated to the basic conditioning such as treadmills. And that was exactly what they froze at.

Cyberdoll, wearing waist high camouflage fatigues and a short sports cami, was sweating profusely while she ran on a treadmill facing toward the center. Finally being able to see Cyberdoll's pale skin was a shock, and it was even more shocking to see how fit she was. Her stomach was flat and toned but not to where it didn't look good. Her arms were toned and as usual her brown hair was up in a pony tail but, again shocking everyone, she wasn't wearing her glasses revealing beautiful brown eyes that were narrowed slightly in annoyance and determination.

"Jen! How much longer do I have to run?" Cyberdoll huffed unaware of the company.

"Till the song ends," Rain's voice called from where she was punching a bag down on the bottom tier.

"You said that about the last song!"

"But you love me!" Cyberdoll let out a very loud growl as the song came to the end.

"Let's get it started ha!

Let's get it started in here!

Let's get it stated ha!

Let's get it started in here!

It keeps running, running

And running, running

Come on y'all

Let's get cuckoo

Uh-huh, let's get cool, cool

(In here)

Why not get cool, cool

Uh-huh, let's get cool, cool

(In here)

Why not get cool, cool

Uh-huh, let's get cool, cool

(In here) Hey! Hey! Hey!

Oh, Oh, Oh,

Ya ya ya ya

Ya ya ya ya

Ya ya ya ya

Ya ya ya ya

And running, running

And running, running

And running, running

And running, running

And running, running…."

The music finally stopped and Cyberdoll stopped the machine, panting heavily. Weakly she stepped off the machine and sat down just as Rain ran up the stairs with two bottles in hand. With a smirk, she shook one of the bottles in front of Cyberdoll's. "Give me that," she snapped snatching the bottle out of her friends hand. Quickly she opened the bottle and chugged it down.

"Well damn!" Ripcord finally yelled almost making Cyberdoll to choke. Both women's heads snapped over to the doors direction to see Cover Girl and the rest of the Alpha Team.

"Ah…. Hey guys," Cyberdoll said uncomfortably. She didn't like anybody to see her body thinking it wasn't the most flattering but she wasn't about to show that by grabbing her jacket to cover herself up, she at least wanted to appear strong.

"Hey peeps," Rain said with her usual smirk. "What's up?"

"Nothin' but the sky, or in this case the ceiling," Ripcord said walking toward the women. He looked over at Cyberdoll. "I didn't know you worked out," he said. "You cover yourself up all the time I'm surprised you have that amazing body."

"Thanks," she muttered. She looked over to the rest of the group, her eyes landing on Snake Eyes. He was staring at her, a slight tilt to his head, making her blush. 'Screw pride,' she thought as she quickly stood, went over to her jacket o a nearby chair and put it on.

"Ah now why are you going and hiding that beautiful body of yours?" Ripcord asked. Everyone rolled their eyes with the exception of Snake Eyes who shot the pilot glare.

"Cause I want to," Cyberdoll muttered zipping up her jacket as her blush grew darker. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get a shower and get ready for duty."

"About that," Cover Girl said. "General Hawk says he wasn't you to take a week's leave."

"Really?" Cyberdoll asked the coloring draining from her face making her look a lot more pale.

"Yeah," Cover Girl said sympathetically.

"Well that's great!" Rain said coming to stand next to her friend, slinging an arm around her neck. "It'll be just like in college right?"

"Yeah, just like college," Cyberdoll said apprehensively. She noticed everyone was frowning and wondered if Rain saw this or even cared for that matter. "Um you know what?" she said unhooking her friends arm. "I'm going to get a shower and by the way," she added reaching into her friends back pocket and snagging her glasses. As she put them on she said, "I'll be taking these back; I'll see you later?"

"Yeah," Rain said putting a little. "I'll be here." Cyberdoll nodded and took off out of the room. She ignored everyone's sympathetic looks but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to meet Snake Eyes gaze and couldn't help but fight down a blush as she felt him squeeze her shoulder gently. The two didn't seem to notice the small smiles that came across their faces, or everyone else's for that matter, as he let go of her.

With one final look at him Cyberdoll finally left the room.

* * *

I'm writing chapter 5 now so hopefully it will be up soon! R and R please!


	5. Chapter 5

HAHA! Chapter 5 is up! And it has only been a couple of days not a week! Go me!

Anyway thanks to all who reviewed! Last chapter was the most reviews I've ever gotten for this story! Woo-hoo! Go you guys! Keep up the good work and don't forget to R and R Please!

So here's chapter 5 for you guys because I apperciate all your hard work on reviewing. I actually have chapter 6 WRITTEN not typed yet but written. I'm not going to post it for awhile though cause of school work and cause I want to see how this chapter does.

F.Y.I! I'm sorry if this chapter seems a bit... overly romantic (I think it is at least but hey I like it) but I read a romance novel before writing this chapter. I actually wanted this chapter to happen before hand and the romance novel just helped it bring it out more ^_^

So enough about me on with the story! I no own G.I. Joe!

* * *

Chapter 5

Cyberdoll sighed heavily as she stared at the metal door in front of her. This was something she wanted to avoid but she was desperate for some sleep, and desperate times call for desperate measures. 'You can do this,' she thought to herself, thinking about how she wouldn't get any sleep during her week off if she stayed in her room. 'You have to do this.'

Apprehensively she knocked on the door and waited. When nothing happened she tired again with the same result. 'Damn it!' she thought groaning, letting it echo in the abandon hallway. 'He's not here!'

She placed her forehead against the door, racking her brain for another solution. 'Maybe I could go to General Hawk or-' She suddenly yelled as someone grabbed her shoulder. She spun around to come face to face with none other than Snake Eyes. "Gah, Snake Eyes! You scared the crap out of me!" she said placing a hand over her heart that was beating a mile per minute.

Snake Eyes took out a pen and notepad. "Sorry," he wrote. "Can I help you with something?"

"Um, well, yes," she said looking up from his elegant cursive handwriting to his visor. "I know this seems like an odd request but… well I was wondering if I could…." Suddenly the words were caught in her throat and she looked down with a dark blush from embarrassment.

Snake Eyes quickly wrote something down and flashed it in her line of vision. "Would you like to sleep in my room for a couple of days?" it read.

"If-If it's possible," she said looking back at him. "I mean you don't have to say yes but it would only be a few days and it would only be during-" Snake Eyes put a finger over her mouth stopping her babble. He then removed his finger and wrote,

"I don't mind, but what makes you think that Rain won't look for you here?"

"Call it a hunch," she said mysteriously. Snake Eyes tilted his head to the side, inquiring, but when she didn't clarify what she said he shrugged. He then made a swatting motion with his hand indicating she needed to move aside.

Silently she did allowing him to type in his access code. The door slide open and Snake Eyes stepped aside to let her through. She blushed as she went inside and stopped, shock, at the lay out of the room.

Unlike the apartment style rooms, his was set out like a traditional Japanese home. The first room was covered with a bamboo carpet and had a low table that was surrounded by a few sitting pillows. A small cabinet was in the corner of the room with drinking cups and a pot. Weapons lined the dark green walls from the smallest hand gun to a pair of Sais. A shoji wall divided the bedroom where, on a raised platform, was a bed. She spotted two other doors, one opened to reveal a small full sized bathroom and the other closed which she assumed was the closet.

"Ah… are you sure you don't mind if I sleep here?" Cyberdoll asked. Snake Eyes nodded reassuringly. He went over to his closet and pulled out another bed pallet. He walked back in the room, placed the pallet down, and moved the table to where it was up against the wall.

Cyberdoll smiled and started rolling out the bed pallet in the middle of the floor. She was about to lay down when she felt a gentle on her bicep. She looked up to meet Snakes Eyes. He pointed at her then over to the bed in the other room. He then pointed at himself and the pallet on the floor. "Are you sure?" she asked with a hint of reluctance.

Snake Eyes nodded his head. To further prove his point, he gently pushed her toward his med and made her sit down on it. She looked up at him with a small pout on her lips that couldn't help bring a smile to his own.

With the smile still on his lips, he folded his arms over his chest and stood his ground clearly indicating he wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.

Cyberdoll smiled sleepily before mutter, "Thank you." Snake Eyes gave a quick nod before going back to the other room to finish his temporary bed. Cyberdoll couldn't help the flutter in her heart as she watched him move with the deftest grace she had ever seen. His muscles rippled and flexed as he straightened the room to his liking and she vaguely wondered what those strong arms would feel like wrapped around her.

Quickly she shook her head of those thoughts and deftly laid her head down on the pillow hoping to hide her blush. Surprisingly she found the bed pallet very comfortable and when she took a deep breathe she felt giddy when Snake Eyes scent assaulted her senses. She turned one eye toward the silent ninja, watching as he did his work.

But suddenly her sleep deprived mind started shutting down and slowly her eyes began to droop. She struggled slightly but couldn't fight it off and instantly fell into a fitful, dreamless sleep.

Snake Eyes cast a glance over to where Cyberdoll lay and smiled seeing her asleep. Her head, with her glasses slightly askew, was on his pillow, her mouth slightly ajar as she breathed steadily. She was asleep on her side and her feet were tumbling off the platform. He had to hold back a laugh as he saw she hadn't bothered to remove her jacket of boots, yet that only seemed to enhance how beautiful and innocent she looked, like a sleeping child.

But he knew from experience how uncomfortable she would be when she woke up so silently he crept toward her. He started taking her boots off first, with gentle tugs, mindful not to wake her. Once that task was done, he moved her feet onto the pallet and then started removing her jacket.

Deftly he removed the article of clothing revealing a regular army green tank top. It wasn't anything special but it did show off how well her arms were toned and as he extracted the jacket, he gently caressed them making Cyberdoll shiver. A loving smile crossed his lips as he folded up her coat and tucked her under the covers. She didn't awake once through the ordeal and snuggled closer to the sheets as she murmured something incoherent. Finally he removed her glasses, placing them next to her stared at the sleeping woman before him.

This was probably the closest he'd ever get to the technician in his life. In his eyes she was one of the most beautiful things in the world, not just physically but every aspect of her was beautiful to him, but there was no way in hell he'd tell anyone that, especially Cyberdoll. Every time he'd come close to telling, he'd convinced himself it was for the best that nobody knew, it was sort of an unspoken rule that two Joes weren't allowed to be in a relationship; General Hawk had said so more than once. And really it tore Snake Eyes up inside; his duty and honor verses following his heart.

But what if something did happen to him on the battlefield while they were together? He'd seen the kind of devastation that still haunted the living partner's life and he couldn't possibly let that happen to Cyberdoll.

'It's better this way,' he thought bitterly as he moved away from the brunette. 'I would only cause more pain if we were together but that doesn't mean I can't stop watching out for her.'

With one last look he silently closed the shoji door and crept out of the room.

* * *

A little while later Snake Eyes found himself in the sir plane hanger and immediately found Rain surrounded by a bunch of her teammates. With set determination he briskly walked toward her, ignoring the few curious looks he got. Rain noticed him first as he stood near by. "Snake Eyes! Glad to see ya," she said causing everyone to look over at him. "Can I help you with anything?" Snake Eyes pulled out his notepad and pen and wrote,

"Yes actually. I was wondering if I could possibly speak to you."

"Sure," she said. Seeing she wasn't moving he added,

"Alone." Her teammates shot curious looks between the two of them but Rain shrugged it off and followed Snake Eyes to a secluded corner.

"What's up?" she asked once they stopped.

"It's about Cyberdoll," Snake Eyes wrote. A look of worry crossed over Rain's face.

"Is she okay?" she asked.

"She's fine," Snake Eyes wrote. "Just more sleep deprived than usual, which is what I want to talk to you about." Rain didn't say anything but nodded her head for him to continue. "I think you need to back off of Cyberdoll a little," he wrote. "I understand that you two are best friends but it's gotten to the point where General Hawk might put Cyberdoll on permanent leave." Rain's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Really?" she asked. "How do you know this?"

"I have my sources," he wrote. Actually it was a blatant lie, there was no way Hawk would consider such a thing, but he hoped that rain believed his bluff.

Rain's face then contorted into one of contemplation. "I guess… I have been a bit hard on her these past few months, haven't I?" Snake Eyes resisted the urge to write 'No shit, you think?' "It's just that… I thought K.C. would be the same, I mean it's only been four years since we last saw each other."

"A lot can happen to a person in four years," Snake Eyes wrote. "Cyberdoll has been with us going on three years; G.I. Joe can change a person in that short of a time, Rain."

"Yeah but… I mean her working nightshifts is something she did back in high school and college, she's a night person and she always acted like a regular person afterward…. Maybe if you guys give me just like two more months, she'll go back to the way she was. I'll talk to General Hawk about it and see what I can do."

A whole new meaning of the word annoyance crossed Snake Eyes face at the woman's persistence. 'It's like Cyberdoll has grown up and Rain hasn't,' he thought as he wrote something new down. He practically shoved the notepad into Rain's hand letting her read his note.

"Let me put it to you in a less than nicer way," he had written. "If you don't back off and let Cyberdoll get some sleep and act like the way she was before you came, so help me GOD, I will make sure you suffer a fate far worse than death!" A look of sheer panic and terror crossed over the bombardiers face. From stories she'd heard, you never took the ninja's words lightly and lived to see the next day without going to see Doc or Lifeline for a year for both physical and mental injury. When he meant what he said, he MEANT what he said.

Taking the hint she quickly nodded making Snake Eyes give a satisfied smile as he looked at her pale face. He didn't bother to ask if this conversation ever happened as he took his notebook back, he had a feeling this was never going to leave between the two of them. With a nod he left the dirty blonde to her thoughts while he stuck to the shadows, unseen, and left the room to meditate.

* * *

Snake Eyes is very protective of the things he loves, no? LOL XD


	6. Chapter 6

You guys are so lucky I love you all so much. I wasn't going to post this till Monday but since I got so many reviews for Chapter 5 I had too. So here you all go and enjoy it! Keep up the reviews!

I no own G.I. Joe.

* * *

Chapter 6

"Alpha Team, report," Hawk demanded as he slowly paced the control room. His eyes were glued to a satellite image of a small town in Southeast Asia with bursts of gun fire and clouds of dust everywhere.

"The town is full of enemies Sir, no civilians," Duke's voice said. "We're trying to break them up but those damn Vipers seen to be keeping the soldiers in their places." Hawk frowned.

"Has Snake Eyes and Breaker penetrated the line?"

"Yes Sir, but neither of them has communicated with us for five minutes." Hawk was quiet for a moment.

"Give them another five minutes. If they don't communicate with you by then, haul ass out of there." It was quiet for a moment on the other side before Duke said,

"Yes Sir."

In the corner of the room, at one of the computer hubs, Cyberdoll, substituting for a colleague, looked over at the general with a hint of fear in her eyes. She understood the general's reasoning, it was a loosing battle from the moment it started. A small terrorist group somehow got their hands on futuristic weapon plans and usually G.I. Joe could handle that. But they somehow ended up with bad intel and didn't realize Cobra had joined the party. Now Alpha Team had their hands full trying to retrieve the plans and keep Cobra members distracted.

This wasn't the first time Hawk had told a team to get out of where ever they were, leaving some members behind, and it sure wasn't going to be the last, but it was still just as nerve wreaking especially when Snake Eyes was the one they were leaving behind.

"Cyberdoll," Hawk said turning toward her.

"Yes Sir?"

"Have Rain prepare for drop in five minutes." Cyberdoll's eyes widened.

"Y-Yes Sir." Quietly she turned back to her hub, putting on her head set.

"Rain?"

"Rain here," the bombardier's voice said.

"Drop in five minutes." Cyberdoll's voice sounded weak.

"Has Snake Eyes and Breaker gotten out yet?"

"Negative," Cyberdoll said weakly. "No communication from them for five minutes." Almost as if Rain was reading her thoughts, she said reassuringly,

"Hey don't worry alright? They'll both make it out in time."

Cyberdoll nodded her, head biting her bottom lip, comforted slightly by her friend's words. 'But what if they don't make it out in time?' the little voice in the back of her head said. 'What if Rain has to drop the bomb before they get out?' A new wave of panic swept over her as different terrible scenarios went through her head.

'Stop it,' she told herself, curling her hands into fist. 'They'll make it out of there. They WILL make it out of there.' She looked back at the screen where they fighting continued.

It was times like these that she felt completely useless. She was a noncombatant so she couldn't join in the fight; instead she was here, safe and sound, while her comrades were being killed in the outside world. She thought about becoming a combatant but then she thought about how she couldn't possibly survive during the day; night is when she worked best.

She glanced over at the clock. It's already been two minutes and still nothing from Snake Eyes or Breaker. She looked around at everybody in the room who anxiously waited. She looked back at the screen pleadingly. 'Please God, let them get out.' She glanced over at the clock.

Three minutes, now. Her back tensed at how close they were cutting it. 'Come on guys,' she though. 'Get out of there.' Suddenly her head phones cackled.

"Anything yet?" Rain's voice asked.

"No, nothing," Cyberdoll said. Her eyes went back to the clock just as it hit the four minute mark.

Her heart rate picked up and her fists tightened more. Tears welled in her eyes at the thought of loosing the man she loved when she suddenly heard the best news she thought she'd ever hear in her life.

"They're out! They're out!" Duke's voice yelled. "Mission accomplished!" A loud yell of happiness filled the room as everyone rejoiced. Cyberdoll let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding as a sudden sense of relief filled her.

"Good job," Hawk said. "Now get your asses out of there."

"Yes Sir!"

"Cyberdoll," Hawk said turning to the technician.

"Yes Sir?" she asked with a smile.

"Time to drop the Birdie," he said with his own smile.

"Yes Sir." She turned toward her hub saying,

"Rain, time to drop the Birdie."

"Woo-hoo!" the bombardier yelled. "You got it! One big boom coming up!" Cyberdoll turned back toward the satellite image. Not even a moment later the screen suddenly lit up with hues of orange and red as a big explosion occurred. A bitter happiness filled the room, happy that they didn't loose any teammates today and bitter at the lives spent at the cost of protecting the innocent.

"Did you see it? Did you see it?" Rain's voice asked excitedly.

"Yes," Cyberdoll said motherly. "I saw it sweetie." Rain laughed.

"That was so much fun."

"I bet you pyro," Cyberdoll said. "Hey I have to go, see you when you get home?"

"As always." Cyberdoll then turned off the radio and put her head set down. She then stood up and walked over to General Hawk.

Everybody by now was back at work, so nobody really paid attention to her when she stood next to the general. "Can I help you with anything Cyberdoll?" Hawk asked.

"Permission to leave station early Sir?" A knowing smile came across Hawk's face.

"Permission granted. Be back here no later than 1800."

"Yes Sir." Cyberdoll started to leave but caught Cover Girl's questioning look. She smiled as she came over to the blonde. "You wondering where I'm going?" she asked.

"Just a little," Cover Girl said. Cyberdoll smiled.

"Can't tell you right now but think of it this way, you finally get to see what is in the box I a got a couple of months ago…."

"Really?"

"Yep, but for now, you must stay in the dark." Cyberdoll brought up her hands and wiggled her fingers like she was casting a spell on Cover Girl. This causes both women to laugh. "I'll see you later okay?"

"You know where to find me," Cover Girl said jerking a thumb toward Hawk.

"Got it," Cyberdoll said walking away and out of the room.

* * *

"You gave us all quite a scare," Cover Girl said to Breaker and Snake Eyes as Alpha Team entered the command room.

"It took longer than expected to get the plans," Breaker said. "But we still made it out."

"Yeah, with only a minute to spare before I blew you guys up sky high," Rain said as she entered the room.

"I bet you would have enjoyed it too," Ripcord said.

"The big boom yes, killing you guys no." Rain came to stand next to Ripcord who was the farthest away from the dark clad ninja. It had only been a week since Snake Eyes threatened Rain f she didn't leave Cyberdoll alone. Like a good little bombardier she'd taken his "advice" and stopped pestering Cyberdoll to where it was still slightly annoying but not to where the Joes felt like killing her for making one of their favorite technicians nearly sick. Cyberdoll was actually getting enough sleep and her health was returning back to normal.

"So where is our fearless leader?" Heavy Duty asked.

"Right here," Hawk's voice said from the entrance of the command room. Everybody turned to see their commanding officer all dressed up in his dress uniform. An array of medals covered his coat showing the many battles he'd been in and won.

Everyone saluted as the general came toward them. "At ease," he said. Everyone relaxed and a few smiles came to their faces.

"So what's the special occasion Sir?" Scarlett asked.

"The Military Ball," Hawk said. "It's why we're near a port near Washington, D.C.. My date and I are on a tight schedule, the ball starts at 8:00 tonight; very stressful."

"Well then, why you going if it causes you such stress?" Heavy Duty asked. A playful smile came across Hawk's face.

"Well one of us has to keep up appearances," joked General Hawk as he straightened his coat. Everyone had a little laugh at the joke before Ripcord asked,

"So who's your date?"

Just then the command room door slid open making everyone gap as they turned to the person.

Cyberdoll wore a stunning creamy white strapless exotically designed boustie dress that flowed elegantly from her hips to the floor. Her glasses were gone allowing everyone to see her big doe brown eyes that had a little mascara and eyeliner to accent them. Her hair was pulled back in a half pony tail and letting the flow gently to the left side of her neck. To top it off she wore dangly, silver earrings with a simple silver necklace with a knitted sliver shawl and handclasp.

She smiled shyly as she descended the stairs making her way to the group. "General," she said tilting her head as she looked at him.

"My lady," he replied bowing as he held out an arm for her. With a gentle smile she took his arm and turned to face everyone's still awe struck faces. Seeing the conservative computer wiz doing a complete 180 was just amazing! None of them expected such a thing, not even Snake Eyes who couldn't fight his jealousy and longing as he watched General Hawk with the beautiful woman.

"Her father is the Secretary of the Navy," General Hawk explained snapping them out of their reverie. "And also a good friend of mine; he requested his daughter presence at the ball- for a little family reunion."

"So that's what was in the box you got!" Cover Girl said with realization, making Cyberdoll laugh.

"Yep, wanted it to be a surprise," she said.

"Well it certainly is one," Duke said. "I wish you both a good night."

"Thank you Duke," Hawk said as he escorted Cyberdoll to the door. Snake Eyes took notice, as did everyone else, that beneath the shawl it laced up in the back with thick straps that criss-crossed in the center. "Now we'll be back later tonight," Hawk continued as they walked away. "So please don't blow up the ship."

Everyone laughed.

"Don't worry General, we'll watch out for each other," Heavy Duty said.

"Just like I trained them," was the last thing everyone heard as Hawk and Cyberdoll left the room.

"Wow, she was somethin'," Ripcord said once the doors closed.

"Now that was how she looked in high school and college," Rain said.

"You serious?" Ripcord said in disbelief. "Damn! I wonder what happened for her to change?" Rain just shrugged.

Scarlett looked over at Snake Eyes who had suddenly become more quiet than usual; he looked almost contemplative or was that seething? "Something wrong?" she asked snapping him out of his reverie.

"No, nothing's wrong," he signed. "I think though I'm going to go train for a little while." He got up from his spot and was about to leave when he heard Heavy Duty's British voice say teasingly,

"I think we have ourselves a jealous ninja."

He glanced back to see everyone's smirking faces. Everyone knew that the ninja only really trained alone when he wanted to think, and right now all of them could figure out whom he was thinking about.

Without signing anything, he uncharacteristically flipped them off and left, listening to everybody's laughter.

* * *

THANKS AGAIN! AND READ AND REVIEW PLEASE!!!!


	7. Chapter 7

*Nearly passing out from all the reviews* Wow you guys are amazing for all the support! I'm feeling so overwhelmed from all the 'hurry up' and 'update soon!' or 'you're story always brightens my day' and 'this story is amazing!'

I never thought I could feel this loved for my story that I thought wouldn't do so well. I even got mistaken for a college student cause of my writing! I still don't think I'm THAT good.

So besides the HUGE thanks and free hugs I just wanted to tell you guys that this story is going to be a LOT longer than six or seven chapters like I anticipated (go figure I wouldn't get the math right.... -_-)

Anyway keep up the good work on reviewing, I seen to be living for them now (lol) but please understand I'll update as soon as I can! It's just a slow process.... R and R please!

oh btw **Mereangel: **It's sort of both. I got the dress idea from watching a Celtic Woman special on tv but the coloring anf the designed boustia were my ideas. I coud try to draw it but I can't draw worth a crap so.... sorry.

Now on with the story! I no own G.I. Joe.

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**Chapter 7**

"We're late," Hawk said casting a glance at his wrist watch.

"No General, we're fashionably late," Cyberdoll said with a smile. Hawk also smiled.

"There's a difference?"

"Of course there is." It was only 8:15 as their limousine pulled up to the Washington State Building. Hawk got out of the car just as the limo driver got out and opened Cyberdoll's door. "I really feel like a princess tonight with the way you're treating me Sir," she said as she took Hawk's hand.

"I'm a gentleman Cyberdoll, it's in my nature."

"Ha! So who did you loose a bet to that made you have to take me?" she joked.

"Now you've wounded me," Hawk smiled.

"Poor General," she replied patting his arm playfully while they ascended the stairs, saying dramatically, "Having to take an old hag like me to the ball."

"You are certainly no hag Cyberdoll," he said suddenly serious, stopping them as she turned to her. Cyberdoll smiled shyly.

"I was only joking Sir," she said.

"Glad to hear it," the general said with a smile. They then continued to go up the stairs.

At the top Cyberdoll said, "By the way General, it's Kylie when we're out in public." Hawk smiled.

"If you don't mind, Ms. Cohen is fine with me."

"You're such an old fashioned gentleman," Cyberdoll scuffed playfully as he opened the door for her.

Inside, classical music filtered down from the upper where the call was. Silently the pair passed over the marble floor if the 17th centaury decorated room to the check-in.

"Name Sir?" asked the young man behind the desk.

"General Clayton Abernathy with guest Lieutenant Kylie Cohen," Hawk said. The man thumbed through the book in front of him before stopping. His finger scanned the page before stopping in the middle. "Ah here you are General Abernathy," the man said marking it and looking back at them. "Would you like to leave your hat here Sir?"

"Just the purse and shawl from the young lady," the general said noticing the woman next to him prepare her belongings for the young man.

The man took the possessions, and Cyberdoll and Hawk made their way towards the grand staircase. Slowly the ascended the stairs since Cyberdoll was not used to wearing high heels.

Finally reaching the top of the stairs they looked through the open double door to see another 17th centaury décor room filled with a sea of decorated white linen tables. To one side of the room was an orchestra band with a dance floor sprawled out before them. A large chandelier hung from the ceiling, casting a glow to the champagne colored walls giving a magical feel to it. To add to that, men dressed in military uniforms and women in elegant dresses flittered about the room talking to each other while some were sitting at the tables eating their dinner. As they entered the room, they saw to the other side of the room an open balcony with more tables, lit by candle light, where other guests sat and talked.

"Wow," Cyberdoll said taken slightly aback. "They certainly don't spare any expense for this thing, do they?"

"Wait till you taste the food," Hawk said. "You'll faint at the first bite." Cyberdoll couldn't help but smile at the sarcasm in his voice.

Quietly they walked over to a table near the center of the room. All the while, Cyberdoll scanned the room looking for a pair of familiar faces in the sea of so many. "I don't see them," she said worriedly.

"Maybe they're fashionably late?" Hawk said with a smirk. Cyberdoll sent him a playful glare. "You shouldn't worry so much," he added. "You've got plenty of time to see them."

"I guess you're right…," she said taking a seat.

"I promise they'll be here, and I hate to leave you but…." He looked over at a group of men near the buffet.

"I understand Sir," Cyberdoll said with a smile knowing the general was worried about the budget this year. Hawk nodded his thanks and left, leaving Cyberdoll by herself.

She sat there uncomfortably, glancing at the crowd around her. This really wasn't her crowd, these men and women were of higher rank than her so she didn't really belong here. But the thought of meeting her Mom and Dad after four years and not have to speak to them through a telephone excited her. To distract herself from worrying to much, she turned her thoughts toward how everyone reacted when they saw her.

She smiled as she recalled their awestruck faces. Eyes wide, almost comically popping out of their heads, and mouths a gap in shock; all except for Snake Eyes. She ducked her head to hide a blush at the thought of how he reacted.

Unlike the others he just stared at her but it wasn't like his usual stare, there was definitely an underlying emotion that she couldn't place. She had to surpass a shiver of delight when he looked at her the way he did; she had felt completely immobilized. He had never looked that way at her before or had he and she just didn't notice? He was a well trained ninja so he could hide it but if that's so why did it show when she was dressed up? Was that the only way to get a reaction out of him?

So lost in her confused thoughts, she didn't notice till she heard her name. "KYLIE!" The technician spun around in her chair to see a light brown haired woman in a dark blue dress run towards her.

"Mom!" Cyberdoll yelled jumping up. The two women rushed to each other bringing themselves into a fierce hug. The women pulled back and her mother placed her hands of either side of Cyberdoll's face as tears swelled in her eyes.

"Oh Kylie… you look absolutely beautiful."

"You too mom," was all Cyberdoll could say as he two women hugged again. Cyberdoll opened her eyes to see a well dressed, uniform man come their way. "Dad…," she said as she fought down a wave of tears.

"Hey Sweetie," her father said as her mother moved aside letting father and daughter embrace. He gave her a kiss on the cheek as they pulled back and Cyberdoll had to keep her emotions in check as she studied them both.

Her mother wore a long haltered dress. Her light brown hair was pulled up in a bun while her bangs were brushed stylishly to the side. Her face was more round, like Cyberdoll's only she had inherited her father's jaw that was softened thanks to her mother's DNA, and hazel eyes that gleamed happily at her daughter. She didn't wear much jewelry except for a pair of gold studs and her wedding bands that shown proudly as her slim fingers, so much like Cyberdoll's, wrapped around her husband's arm.

Unlike her mother and Cyberdoll her father was a tall, broad shouldered man with dark brown hair that had hints of gray at the roots and dark brown eyes that right now looked at her with love and fatherly pride. Medals adored proudly on his Navy dress uniform, showing the hard work of how he earned the rank of Secretary of the Navy. His own wedding band was secure of his finger as he laid his hand on his wife's.

Cyberdoll stood a little straighter, fighting back tears and trying to find the words that expressed how much she had missed them. But she didn't get the chance to when her mother looked at her worriedly and stepped away from her husband to take Cyberdoll's hands in her own. "You look a lot paler than the last time we met Sweetie, are you feeling well? Have you gotten enough sleep?"

Cyberdoll wanted to laugh at her mother's questions. 'She doesn't know the half of it,' she thought as she smiled. "I'm fine Mom. Just haven't been able to get some sun in awhile." Relief washed over her mother's face. Her father then stepped forward, putting a hand on each of their backs, and started ushering them toward the balcony.

"Let's get some fresh air," he suggested with a happy smile. "Then we'll catch up on how we've been." Cyberdoll loved the way he subtly tried to say they would have more privacy to talk, outside. It reminded her of all those times in her childhood and adolescent years, and even in her college years, when he would take her or her brother some where private to talk when he felt that they were going to do something they might regret or for just a serious chat, which was pretty often. She may have inherited her mother's kindness and patience but she also inherited her father's stubbornness and willfulness, two things that contradicted her mother's side of the family.

Once outside, they found a comfortable table and sat down. "Where are Brian and Lisa at?" Cyberdoll asked, thinking about her older brother and his wife. Both her mother and father gave a sad smile.

"They're both still in Chicago," her father said. "An important business meeting came up, one of those 'I can't miss' kind of meetings."

"Ah," Cyberdoll said just as sadly. She was really hoping to see her brother again tonight. It's been even longer since they had seen each other last. Her thoughts then turned back toward her parents when her mother asked,

"How have you bee, Sweetie? Are you being treated well? Have you been eating properly?"

Cyberdoll laughed at her mother's concerned questions feeling completely at peace than she had in a long time. She then went on to explain, to the best of her abilities without revealing anything to much, about her job and how well she was doing. She talked about the people she worked with as well as she could, leaving a few out, and her parents were happy to know Rain was there, making them feel slightly at ease. She then asked about how they were doing, happy to know nothing terribly great had occurred over the years since she had joined G.I. Joe. She then asked about her brother and was even happier to hear his medical distribution company had taken off.

By then, an hour and a half had past, and the trio decided to move back inside to eat. After getting their food and finding a place to sit, they had an intimate family dinner as old bonds were reforged. To Cyberdoll, this was the happiest time of her life and nothing could ruin the moment. Her parents then went about introducing her to the other officers and their wives or husbands, the pride from their daughter's position and job self-evident in their voices. At on point they met General Hawk who said to Cyberdoll, "See? I told you they would be here." All Cyberdoll did was smile as her and her parents went to meet other people. They then went about switching between their friends and dancing.

After one particular dance, father and daughter made their way back to Cyberdoll's mother, laughing at a joke her father had made, when his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. The Secretary of the Navy frowned as he pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the caller I.D..

"Who is it?" his wife asked.

"I don't know but it might be important," he said stepping away from them. "Excuse me a moment." It was also around this time that Cyberdoll took notice that all the heads of the military branches were on their cell phones. Her eyebrows furrowed together in concern. That was to much of a coincidence especially with their own concerned, panic faces.

Forgetting proper etiquette, she went to her father and tapped him on the shoulder. She immediately knew something was wrong when she saw his panic face. "What's the matter?" she asked kindly. Her father didn't respond at first but pulled the phone away from his ear and put it on speaker, lowering the volume so only she and him could hear.

"…And to prove my point, to be taken seriously, be prepared for a little surprise, a fraction of only what my company can do…." The call was then cut but Cyberdoll's entire being was all in a panic of fear. She recognized the voice, the one she heard so many times through untraceable phone calls to G.I. Joe, Cobra Commander.

"Is everything alright, Dear?" father and daughter turned to see Cyberdoll's mother worried face.

"It's nothing Honey," Cyberdoll's father crisply said, shutting his phone closed. "Just a prank call." He hid his panic like a true marine and sent his daughter a pointed look. Cyberdoll bit her bottom lip and nodded. Her father then looked back at her mother and was about to say something when a shriek of terror cut him off.

Everyone looked just in time to hear and see the balcony window as a missile went though it. In a blink of an eye the missile hit the back wall, the support for the entire building. Everyone watched in horror as the building started to fall around them. Time seemed to slow down.

There was no time to react.

No time to think.

No time to even scream.

Cyberdoll watched frozen as the ceiling caved in on its self in chunks before her father grabbed her and her mother and used his body to shield the two women he loved. A large piece of rock crashed right next to them, shoving them to the ground violently.

The next thing Cyberdoll knew was the sensation of falling backwards until her father's weight crushed her on the floor and a violent hit to her head.

Then darkness.

* * *

btw way I might be posting another G.I. Joe story and/or a Halo story (MCxOC of course). If I ever got around to it....


	8. Chapter 8

*hides behind Snake Eyes and Master Chief*

I REGRET NOTHING!!!!!!!!!

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 8**

The plane ride couldn't be longer for the members of G.I. Joe Alpha Team. Not only did they worry about the general and Cyberdoll but this was a devastating blow to G.I. Joe's pride as it was their duty to stop these kinds of things from happening. Yet they were so caught up in their last mission that they had no inkling of what was really up too.

Almost immediately after the bombing of the Washington State Building, all the members of G.I. Joe were alerted and Alpha Team was sent out to access the damage and see if the two members of G.I. Joe were alive and well. But first they had to fly to Washington, D.C. then try to get into the site in unmarked van.

Everyone was on edge as they traveled the road to where the former building once stood. They tried to remain calm but no one talked (not even Ripcord), no one moved, no one dared showed any emotions. This definitely could be said about Snake Eyes.

Even though the ninja was stoic and clam on the outside, inside his emotions were all in a frenzy. Different scenarios of Cyberdoll in all sorts of pain ran through his head making his panic rise more. He prayed every god her knew that she was alright and he vowed to himself that, when the time was right and if she survived (God how much it hurt him to think that she was dead), that he'd tell her his feelings, whether she rejected him or not.

Suddenly everyone was pulled from their thoughts as the car came to a halt. "Alright, we're here," Heavy Duty said.

"Breaker, can you tell if General Hawk's communication device is on?" Duke asked weary of getting out.

"Negative, but that could only mean it got smashed when the building fell," the technician said hopefully. He looked over at Duke looking for support of his idea.

Slowly Duke nodded, they needed some hope after all. "Alright everyone you know your jobs," Duke said. Everyone nodded and silently they opened the back doors, letting Duke, Ripcord, Scarlett, and Snake Eyes out.

Duke and Ripcord were dressed in civilian clothing, their job to blend in with the crowd of civilians to see if any Cobra members were about. Scarlett wore a typical EMT outfit, going in to hopefully find Cyberdoll and Hawk. Snake Eyes' own mission was to head about amongst the fallen building looking for Hawk and Cyberdoll in case the EMT's hadn't found them yet and also to find any traces of the missile. Heavy Duty and Breaker were left with scouting the area for Cobra members as well as keeping all communication with the team open.

The team looked at each other again before all nodding and heading off. The site was a terrible mess to see. The building had given away under itself leaving all forms of broken rock and glass strewed about the area. Police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks were scattered, looking like the area of operation had no order what so ever. EMT's were scattered about trying to help as many of the wounded and dieing as they could. Police officers tried to hold back the mob of people trying to get about better look while avoiding not to step of the bodies covered in white sheets of the dead. Firefighter's put out small flames and shifted rubble as the tried to look for survivors, must of the time pulling out limp bodies and covering then for privacy. But it was the survivors who looked the worst, covered with blankets, sitting in ambulances or wherever they could wide-eyed, shaking, their faces streaked with tears at their loss and luck. Others were flittering about looking piteously as they tried to find news of their loved ones.

Snake Eyes had to look away from the heart wrenching sight. He'd seen this sight a dozen of times and it still hadn't dulled his sense of pain as he knew how the survivors felt; after all he had lost the only father he'd ever known, his sensei. Would he also loose the woman he loved too?

Stealthily he maneuvered about the fallen building, avoiding any personnel, looking for any sign of Cyberdoll or Hawk. He avoided his gaze to where limp hands and legs stuck out though he did check if they were alive. If he felt a pulse, he'd dig them out but leave just as silently as he came. His heart pitter-pattered in his chest as his apprehension grew. Where were Cyberdoll and General Hawk? Just then Scarlett's voice cut through his thoughts.

"Great news guys," she said. "I found out that General Hawk's okay and was taken to a hospital nearby for a leg injury." Some of the tension in Snake Eyes eased but it was still there as Scarlett didn't say anything about Cyberdoll.

"How bad is his injury?" Duke asked?

"Just broken, nothing major," Scarlett said.

"Good. Anything on Cyberdoll yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Keep looking then," Duke said. "That goes for you too Snake Eyes." Snake Eyes typed back an acknowledgement before continuing on his hunt.

At some points he stopped and looked at various size pieces of metal that didn't go with the rest of the building. 'The missile,' he realized after looking at one particular piece. He tossed it aside thinking, 'It's no use to G.I. Joe now.' With one half of his mission done, he concentrated the rest of his energy on finding Cyberdoll.

Coming upon one of the less busy areas of where the emergency workers were at, he caught a glimpse of a light color against dark. He did a double take and was momentarily stunned at the sight he saw.

Cyberdoll sat on one of the fallen debris, her head slightly bowed. Nobody seemed to pay attention to her, making Snake Eyes' blood boil, as they passed her onto other victims. Her long dress was now torn at the knees revealing her slim legs that were covered in little cuts and soot. Her arms were in the same condition and it worried him when he saw blood stains and tears on her once beautiful dress. Her high heels were gone, leaving her feet bare. Silently, avoiding everyone, he made his way over to her.

When he reached her, his heart tightened at the sight of her bottom lip trembling. Using the shadows as concealment he slipped next to her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm fine," she said. Her voice was thick as she held back all her emotions. "I don't need to go to the hospital with my dad." Her voice wavered slightly at the mention of her father just as Snake Eyes realized she thought he was an EMT. He kneeled next to her and gently grabbed her chin and turned it to him. His heart clutched at the sight.

Her face was covered with dirt marks that were muddied by a trail of tears down her cheeks. Her eyes widened piteously as she looked at him while her bottom lip began to tremble more in his hand. "S-Snake E-Eyes…?" she whispered.

He nodded and removed his hand form her chin before taking her hands and taking her behind a pile of rubble for more privacy.

Once there, he cautiously looked around to see if they were followed. Seeing they weren't, he turned to Cyberdoll and was surprised when she suddenly flung herself at him letting out a long held sob on his shoulder. He took a step back at the force and wrapped his arms instinctively around her waist. It took him a moment to actually realize what was going on, but once he did he pressed her even closer to his body trying to offer as much comfort as he could. No words were needed, if he could talk, as his towering figure wrapped protectively around the weeping technician while his fingers stroked her tussled hair.

He vaguely marveled at how well she fit his large body with her petite one. The way her arms wrapped around his neck and the way her body seemed to fit perfectly against his seemed tight to him. He resisted the urge to kiss her temples soothingly instead opting to squeeze her tighter against him.

Slowly her sobs subsided to hiccups and she finally pulled away from him, making him feel empty at the lack of her warm body. "Sorry," she muttered whipping away her tears. "I don't know what cam over me, it's… just the realization of what happened all of a sudden sorta… crashed down on me…."

Snake Eyes nodded his head in understanding, wishing to tell her it was okay. She looked at him for a moment before slowly looking away and straightening her shoulders. "I better go see if anyone else needs help," she said going to walk away. Quickly Snake Eyes grabbed her elbow, effectively stopping her.

When Cyberdoll looked at him, he frantically shook his head. He pulled out his notepad and pen and wrote something down before handing it to her. "And it's my mission to bring you and General Hawk back to base. We know the general is fine in the hospital but you, I have to take back to Doc."

"But it's G.I. Joe's responsibility to protect the citizens no matter what the cost!" Cyberdoll said pleadingly. "I just want to help Snake Eyes. If there is anything I can do, let me do it! I'm tired of sitting around doing nothing!" She indicated to her torn dress. "This wasn't caused by the building Snake Eyes. I ripped it myself till the EMT's arrived to help the wounded. And this blood," she continued pointing to various blood stains. "Are of the people I helped! Please Snake Eyes let me do something! Not just go back to base and get a check up!" Her voice was on the edge of panic and Snake Eyes knew it was only a matter of time before she had some sort of mental breakdown again.

"But that doesn't mean you're not hurt," Snake Eyes wrote. "You may have survived the disaster with only a few cuts and bruises, but there's the psychological aspect to it as well." Cyberdoll looked totally dejected, realizing he was right. She looked away from him with her eyes gaining a glazed over look as she recalled what happened.

"…I feel responsible for this," she said to no one in particular. "If General Hawk and I hadn't come, none of this would have ever happened…. Dad wouldn't be in the hospital and Mom wouldn't have to worry about me or him…."

'Survivor's guilt,' Snake Eyes realized. Quickly he wrote something down and gently grabbed Cyberdoll's shoulder, snapping her out of her thoughts. He handed over his notepad which read,

"None of this is your fault, you understand? Cobra would have still attacked no matter who was there. And it could have been a lot worse for your parents, but they're still alive and able to see a new day as well as many others you've helped."

Cyberdoll read the note before looking up at him desperately. "You think so?" she asked handing him back his notepad.

"I know so," he wrote encouragingly. A small smile graced Cyberdoll's lips.

"Alright then," she whispered. Snake Eyes nodded and quickly used his communication device to inform the others he'd found Cyberdoll. He then suddenly picked her up bridal style, causing her to squeak and blush. Snake Eyes smiled a little and quickly dashed off to the pick up zone before she even had a chance to protest and knew that it would probably be awhile before he could tell her how he felt toward her.

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Sorry it's short but... *shrugs* Next chapter should be longer.... hopefully.


	9. Chapter 9

EDITED

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**Chapter 9**

Cyberdoll took a deep breath to calm her nerves as she looked in the bathroom mirror for the umpteenth time. It had been almost a month and a half since her near death experience and this was going to be her first time going back out in public. Her hair was left unbound, stopping at where it was now cut, just above her shoulder blades. She was again wearing her contacts and, against her wishes, she wore mascara and eyeliner along with some light pink lip gloss. But what made her a little uncomfortable was the outfit Rain was making her wear; a black tight fitting cocktail dress that had a small 'v' cut at the top to show the cleft of her breasts. Certainly didn't help that all the members of Alpha and Delta team, along with Cover Girl, were coming along with them. She was going to feel so self conscious tonight but on the upside. Or downside depending on whose view point you were looking from, Snake Eyes was going to be there.

A blush and a small smile came across her face as she thought of the ninja. Everyone had treated her like a fragile doll, which made her upset sometimes, but the man had barely left her side since they had gotten back on the U.S.S. Flagg. Every minute he had, he spent it near her whether she was on duty or relaxing in the recreation room. She grew to become comfortable around him like they had been life long friends but she always felt that he was trying to tell her something. Yet when he always seemed about to tell her something, they were in one way or the other interrupted. It was frustrating trying to guess what he was saying but at the same time rather humorous and sweet, especially after the last one where Rain had walked in on them and he practically almost threw his hands in the air. It did worry her though that he was spending so much time with her, she often wondered if he slept himself.

"Are you done yet?" Rain's voice said cutting through her thoughts.

"Uh…yeah, just a minute," Cyberdoll said to the bathroom door. Quickly she added the finishing touches, slipping on a pair of high heels that made her feel more like a hooker than a lady. She then looked at himself in the mirror one last time, took a deep breath and opened the door.

"'Bout time," Rain said.

"Well excuse me for trying to gather courage to go out in public," Cyberdoll said dryly.

"Ah come on," Rain said slyly, linking her arms with Cyberdoll's. "You look AMAZING! Snake Eyes is bound to notice you tonight!"

"If I don't make a fool out of myself first in these ridiculous shoes," Cyberdoll muttered, her head bowed to hide a blush.

"You'll be fine," Rain said encouragingly as they walked out of their room.

They chatted lightly after that, Cyberdoll wishing she had grabbed some sort of cover up as she noticed members of G.I. Joe staring at the both of them. "So why do I have to be the hacker?" she asked quietly as she cast a glance at Rain. Unlike Cyberdoll, the bombardier wore with a pair of open toed sandals and simple make up.

Rain sent her playful glare as they came around the corner to the recreation room where they were all to meet. "You're not a hooker; you're a professional young woman."

"Have you not looked at your own shoes!?" Cyberdoll joked. "These things are like 18 inches tall!"

"Why you-" the recreation room doors opened and playfully Rain pushed Cyberdoll inside. What neither was expecting was that when Cyberdoll took a step inside she landed incorrectly on her heel and stumbled. She caught herself in time but not before crashing into someone's chest.

"Oh God! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" she asked frantically as she looked up at the person. Suddenly her breath caught in her throat as she looked at him.

The man was extremely handsome. His blonde hair looked gelled down from the type of cut he had which only accented the thick eyebrows that framed deep blue eyes that eyes stared down at her as if trying to look into her soul. A small smirk played at his lips that were greatly enhanced by his strong angular jaw. His straight nose was slightly askew, a most common thing in G.I. Joe man, and a small scar ran from under his right eye to the back of his jaw. But the most shocking thing was a prominent scar running from the top right forehead across his nose and stopped at under his left eye.

Suddenly the man smiled showing a row of perfectly white, straight teeth as they stood straight, her hands still on his chest. A tap on her shoulder brought her out of her reverie and she blushed as she moved her hands away. "Sorry," she muttered looking down at the floor.

"Don't be, I think Snake Eyes actually liked it," a voice said. Cyberdoll looked over at the small group in the center of the room. The men wore their military dress uniforms while Scarlett and Cover Girl wore beautiful cocktail dresses, but Cyberdoll bristled slightly at the look on their faces. Every last one of them wore small, almost knowing, smiles that irked her to no end till Ripcord's words sunk in. Her head then spun back to the man next to her, her mouth slightly ajar. "S-Snake Eyes?" she asked stunned. Snake Eyes' eyes lit up as he nodded his head.

"OH MY GOD! He's not wearing his mask!" Rain yelled pointing a finger at him. Snake Eyes cast a glance at her, nodding.

"You're lucky," Scarlett said. "He rarely, if ever, leaves the ship. He only does it for special occasion."

"And tonight's a real special occasion," Rain said slyly, elbowing Cyberdoll in the ribs. Cyberdoll looked away from the group as a blush graced her face. She looked at him again out of the corner of her eye and noted he wore a black leather jacket over a dark green polo and a pair of nice slacks.

"Well now that we're all here," Duke said. "Shall we get going?" An affirmative yell resounded in the room and deftly they all started making their way to the main hanger.

Coincidentally or not, tonight U.S.S Flagg was docked near Boston, Massachusetts so they all could easily hop into one of the SUVs and drive to a nice restaurant somewhere in town. Everyone talked animatedly about which restaurant to eat at except for Cyberdoll who was quite content a lingering at the end of the group and remaining quiet. She wasn't really thinking of anything in particular, just watching everyone smile and laugh like a happy family. The smile on her lips lessened a little as a sudden surge of fear over took her. Was tonight going to be another episode of the Washington Building? G.I. Joe had done a pretty good job of a cover up so she wasn't really worried about that but her father was seriously injured and he and her mom weren't too happy that she was back at work. What if something happened to this family?

A light tap on her shoulder brought her out of her reverie and she looked up surprised to see Snake Eyes looking down at her worriedly. He got out his usual pen and notepad and wrote something on it before passing it to her. "Are you alright?" it read. She gave a weak smiling saying,

"Yeah. Just nervous." They stopped at the entrance of the main hanger and Snake Eyes took back his notepad to continue writing.

"Nervous about what?" he asked.

"Tonight," she admitted. "Just…. I don't know. It seems silly…."

"Hey you two!" Ripcord yelled making them look over at the group near twp SUVs "We're waiting!"

Before Cyberdoll could as anything she felt a gently hand on her shoulder, giving her an electrifying feeling as she looked back at Snake Eyes. The ninja gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze and offered her a small smile. She smiled back and she reminded herself to breath normally as his fingers grazed her bare skin, leaving goosebumps when he let go of her.

The duo then walked silently over to the group but before they reached them Snake Eyes veered off, making Cyberdoll stop and look at him. "Don't worry about him," Scarlett said coming to stand next to her. "He's never been comfortable when riding with a bunch of people. He's just getting his own ride."

"Oh," Cyberdoll replied rather lamely. She forced herself to look away from him and almost gave a laugh at seeing a nicely dressed Shipwreck standing next to Cover Girl. Seeing her look, Cover Girl smiled shyly before excusing herself and coming over to stand next to Cyberdoll and Scarlett.

"I sort of invited Shipwreck to come along. You don't mind go you?" A pleading look came across her face as she looked between the two. Cyberdoll gave her an assuring smile before giving her a wink.

"It's fine," she said casting a glance at Scarlett. Scarlett too nodded and smiled. Cover Girl looked at them with a gracious smile before the three of them walked back to the group.

Cover Girl came to stand next to Shipwreck again, while Scarlett climbed in one of the SUVs. Cyberdoll came to stand next to Rain and received a harsh elbow to the ribs. "Ow! What was that for!?"

"You're not allowed to have any silent conversations except with me," Rain said with a playful pout. Cyberdoll smiled.

"Aw, is someone jealous?" she teased. Rain stuck out her tongue and both women laughed.

"Hey," Heavy Duty said, interrupting the girls. "We have a problem. Since Shipwreck's coming along, we don't have enough room for us all. Someone needs to catch a ride with Snake Eyes." Rain gave Cyberdoll a devious smirk before taking off to the SUV.

"K.C. can ride with Snake Eyes," Rain said before Cyberdoll could say anything. Before Cyberdoll could protest, Rain hopped into the passenger side door and shut it. Cyberdoll cast a pleading glance to Heavy Duty who just smiled. He then pointed behind her and said, "You're rides here."

Carefully Cyberdoll spun around and almost had a heart attack. Zooming out of the vehicle hanger, was Snake Eyes on a black, sleek Yamaha EZ1 Super sport 2009 motorcycle. All that was going through her mind at that moment was 'short dress plus motorcycle equals no good.'

He pulled up next to them and looked at Cyberdoll then over at Heavy Duty. "Mind if she bums a ride from you Snakes?" Heavy Duty asked. "No more room here."

Coolly Snake Eyes nodded and removed his helmet. He passed it to Cyberdoll who looked at him questionably. "Don't you need your helmet?" she asked. Snake Eyes smiled a little and shook his head. He pulled out a pair of sunglasses from his jacket and put them on expertly with one hand.

"Don't think this is his first time he's ridden his motorcycle without a helmet," Scarlett said, rolling down her window. "Just take the helmet; it'll be better for all of us."

Reluctantly, Cyberdoll took the helmet and put it on as she moved behind the bike. With torturing slow hesitance, she hopped on cursing as her dress slid to far up her thigh for her liking. She shivered as the fabric of Snake Eyes' pants brushed over her inner thighs and she wondered what Snake Eyes was thinking at this moment. She wrapped her arms tightly around his waist and yelled in her mind, 'I'm going to **kill **Jen for this!'

"Comfortable?" Ripcord's teasing voce asked. She was lucky for the helmet, as she was pretty sure her face was impossibly red, and was about to shout back a retort when suddenly Snake Eyes sped off and her concentration became focused on not screaming.

Snake Eyes relished Cyberdoll's body pressed against his backside as they zoomed off the U.S.S Flagg and onto the streets of Boston. If he wasn't driving, he would have reached back and ran his hands along her thighs to feel her bare skin against his again. But he resisted the urge and concentrated on the road.

When they stopped at a red light, he felt Cyberdoll lessen his grip on him and he looked back at her. Silently one of her hands came up and flipped up the visor allowing him to see a pointed glare. "A little warning would have been nice," she said. Snake Eyes just smiled playfully before a black SUV pulled up next to him.

The window rolled down letting them see Duke. "You mind waiting for us next time?" Duke asked with a smile. Snake Eyes shook his head just before the light turned green. He cast a glance back at Cyberdoll who lowered her visor and wrapped her arms around him tightly again. He then sped off, leaving the SUVs behind.

Cyberdoll let out a big sigh of relief as Snake Eyes finally pulled into the parking lot of _Manger Luxueux. _Once Snake Eyes parked the bike, she immediately hopped off and yanked down the bottom of her dress to its proper place before he could see anything. She then proceeded to take of her helmet and turned to him.

By the time she had turned around, Snake Eyes had the kick stand in place and was the other side if the motorcycle, putting his glasses away. He flashed her smile while he took his helmet back just as two black SUVs pulled up near by.

Silently they walked over to them. Rain hopped over to them with a smirk on her face. "So how was the ride?" she asked teasingly. Cyberdoll sent her a look clearly saying 'I'll-kill-you-later' while Snake Eyes didn't show any emotion. Rain giggled and slung an arm around Cyberdoll's neck. "You'll thank me later," she whispered just for Cyberdoll to hear as they walked toward the restaurant.

Cyberdoll blushed and muttered something incoherent. She shoved Rain off her shoulder and pushed the bombardier forward causing Rain to laugh. Surprisingly, Snake Eyes came up next to her, rather closely, his fingers brushing her hand and she somehow found that very comforting.

Continuing small talk, they entered the restaurant. The inside was darkly lit with lights set low against dark red and gold coloring to create a romantic look. Booths lined on one side of the room, the kitchen on the other. Round tables were littered about the main floor and in the back of the restaurant was a glass wall, allowing the moon light to filter in as well as being able to see a large garden entrance. That's where the larger tables were located and after finding their reservations, they were led back there.

On the way there, subconsciously Cyberdoll moved closer to Snake Eyes, self-conscious of the other men in the restaurant looking at her. Snake Eyes wrapped his hands around hers and gave it a squeeze of reassurance. She looked up at him and blushed but smiled none the less.

When they reached their table, Snake Eyes let go and pulled out her chair for her. Graciously she sat and caught a glance of him sliding his helmet under the chair next to her. She looked across the table where Rain sat and sent the bombardier a glare as she noticed Rain's smile. She looked around at everyone else and saw similar smiles on all their faces. 'I hate them all!' she thought her focus shifting to the menu in front of her.

After everyone ordered and Ripcord practically demanded everyone have a glass of wine, small talk ensued. In G.I. Joe going out were more of 'let's-get-to-know-each-other" events than a "let's-go-out-and-relax." Everyone questioned each others personal background, asked about the latest gossip, and what daily events were at G.I. Joe. The topic of family was nearly always avoided, and when it was brought up, everyone glanced at Cyberdoll with a weary expression. To ignore them, she would take a sip of her wine, swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat.

By the time dinner had arrived, Cyberdoll had drunken two glasses pf wine and was starting to feel a little bit of a headache. It wasn't caused by the alcohol though. It was from the close proximity of Snake Eyes, whose arm constantly brushed up against hers, from the looks and the suddenly odd thought that struck her. Here she was laughing with friends yet how many people from the Cobra attack were mourning a loved one tonight? The thought made her not so hungry anymore.

"Hey," Rain's voice said making Cyberdoll come back to reality. "You okay? You look a little pale." It was the first time that Cyberdoll noticed that everyone was looking at her with worried expressions. She gave a weak smile and said,

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just need to get some fresh air." She quickly got up and walked outside. She entered the garden and hid behind a high rose bush.

Cyberdoll too a deep breath and breathed out slowly to calm her frazzled nerves. She did that a couple of more times before wrapping her arms around her to fight back the cold air. 'I need to get over this,' she thought as she stared at a red rose. 'It's just so hard!'

For a moment she debated with herself on whether she was being silly or not, only to find no answer to her problem. She was so lost in her thoughts that she wasn't aware of anything till she felt something on her bare shoulder. She jumped and spun around to meet Snake Eyes. "Snake Eyes! Don't do that!" Snake Eyes gave her breath taking smile, like a small inside joke played in his mind. His expression then turned serious. He pulled out his and pen and notepad and wrote something down.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I think so…," she said quietly. She rubbed her arms again as a chilly breeze past through. Noticing this, Snake Eyes quickly removed his jacket and without asking placed it over her shoulders coming to stand next to her. "Thank you," she said wrapping the coat around her tighter.

Gently, Snake Eyes put a hand on her shoulder. This caused Cyberdoll to look up at him and with a curious expression on his face, he tilted his head. She understood the question he was asking, "Are you sure you're okay?" Cyberdoll looked down.

"I'm fine," she whispered. A blush crept across her face when his hand grabbed her chin and turned it to where she faced him again. He looked at her hard and she knew he could see through her lie. She bit her bottom lip before opening her mouth, letting the words flow. "Do you think it's wrong that families are probably mourning tonight and I'm here having fun with my friends? I mean, do you think I should be with my family? They were very worried when I up and disappeared the night of the… attack….And they were upset when I told them I was back on duty…. And I know I shouldn't but I feel guilty that I'm here while others are mourning the loss of loved ones. Is that right?" Suddenly she chocked up and she didn't even realize she was crying until Snake Eyes wiped them away.

"Do you think there I something I could have done?" she asked quietly as her bottom lip trembled. Snake Eyes shook his head and looked down at her with soft brown eyes filled with pity and caring. That was the final straw; she busted out a sob and launched herself at him, bringing him into a tight hug.

She buried her head into his chest as a round of sobs racked her body. Snake Eyes wrapped his arms protectively around her and for once, ever since the attack, Cyberdoll felt safe. Both of them didn't seem to notice that Snake Eyes' jacket was on the ground; his body offered all the warmth she needed as he rocked them back and forth. He placed his cheek on the top of her head and ran one of his hands through her hair soothingly as she continued to cry.

After awhile her sobs became hiccups and she pulled back. She sighed, saying, "What's wrong with me, Snake Eyes?" He quickly pulled out his notepad and pen again. He wrote something and made her take it.

"Nothing is wrong with you," it read. "You're still suffering from trauma. Come on, why don't I take you back to base?"

"Are you sure?" she asked. "I don't want to ruin your night." Snake Eyes took back his notepad.

"Nonsense," he wrote. "I'll take you back to base." The way he wrote it left no room for discussion. He bent down and picked up his fallen jacket. He then held it open for her so she could put it on. Cyberdoll smiled as she turned around and slipped her arms into the coat.

As she shrugged it on and wrapped it tightly around her, Snake Eyes came to stand at her side. Feeling giddy, she smiled up at him again, before heading back inside. Snake Eyes followed close behind.

Together they walked back inside and immediately everyone turned their heads to them. "Everything alright?" Rain asked, worried when she saw her friends red eyes.

"It's alright," Cyberdoll said. "I'm just feeling a bit under the weather. Snake Eyes has offered to take me back to the ship." Everyone's eyes lit up as if an inside joke had been said.

Snake Eyes moved away from Cyberdoll and grabbed his helmet, making her realize that yet again she was going to have to ride the motorcycle. She cursed every god she knew as she said good-bye to everyone and followed Snake Eyes out of the restaurant.

At the motorcycle, Snake Eyes handed her his helmet and stuck out a hand for his sunglasses. Understanding, Cyberdoll handed his glasses over and watched him slip them on as he got on his bike before she put her helmet on.

Just as he started the bike, Cyberdoll slipped behind him, again hating how high her dress was riding up, and secured her arms around his waist. He glanced behind her and gave her a nod, and she understood that he was giving her a warning as he backed up. With one last roar, the motorcycle zoomed off into the night.


	10. Chapter 10

I'm back from the grave folks! Well.... for the most part... *looks down to still see one foot in the grave*

Anyway! Sorry about the long wait but being a Senior sucks. *suddenly hands come out of the grave and start pulling her back in*

NO! YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!!!! *struggles to stay above ground* Quick Note: I changed how Snake Eyes looks- he's blonde hair and blue eyed. Again sorry for the long wait but please show love by r&r!!!!!!!

*is pulled back in the ground- though you can still see her fingers*

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**Chapter 10**

Cyberdoll sighed happily as she leaned back in her chair. Finally, her medical leave was up and she was able to go to the midnight shift and have her alone time again. Of course she would have to deal with Rain after her shift but for now she would enjoy the silence. The only thing she really did miss was her chats with Snake Eyes, who was a small mission with Alpha Team to pick up and deliver supplies.

Looking at the screen, she quickly typed in a command and pulled up their location. 'So far, on time,' she thought. She then pulled up another page and typed it into the report. She checked on the new firewall that she and Breaker had worked on, happy to see nothing had tried to penetrate it.

She then went back to her previous position, removing her glasses before she did so. A smile crossed her lips as she closed her eyes with a happy sigh. She vaguely heard the command room door open and she opened her eyes to see blurs.

"Who's there?" she asked as she tried to locate her glasses.

"It's me, Cyberdoll," Cover Girl said.

"Oh hey!" Cyberdoll said as her fingers grazed her glasses. Quickly she put them on, blinking a couple of times, and turned to see Cover Girl looking down at her. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Yes and no," Cover Girl said as she sat in a chair next to Cyberdoll, who gave a knowing smile.

"The General driving you insane again?" Cyberdoll asked sympathetically.

"He always does," Cover Girl said. "But the president is coming down on him about the cut backs." Cyberdoll winced.

"I feel sorry for him," she said. "It's tough, I understand."

"I'm just thankful he gets his frustrations out by exercising instead of yelling." The friends smiled at each other. "So anyway," Cover Girl said as she pulled a folder out from her arms. "Besides this little chat, General Hawk actually has a mission for you."

"A mission?" Cyberdoll asked surprised as she flipped open the folder. "Nothing to big, he just wants you to go to our submarine, _Resolver. _Their computers have been acting strangely and Hawk just wants to make sure it's not a hack."

"Why not send Breaker?" Cyberdoll asked as she carefully went over the file. "He's more qualified for the field work."

"But he's going to be tired after the mission and we're only seeing this as an inspection check. Think of this as a 'Welcome back' present from Hawk."

"How kind," Cyberdoll said dryly as she flipped a page and continued to read. She frowned as she read the report, making Cover Girl ask,

"Something wrong?"

"Nothing that I can't handle," Cyberdoll said as she closed the folder. "But it has me worried that the report sys the first firewall was broken. Luckily, Breaker and I set up a second one over the entire system but it still has worried."

"It has us worried too," Cover Girl said. "It should have shown up on the main hard drive first."

"Not if someone had a bypass code," Cyberdoll said. "And only G.I. Joe personnal have access to that." Neither of them wanted to say out loud what the other was thinking, that there might be a mole in G.I. Joe.

"So assuming I don't have a choice, I'll go and check it out," Cyberdoll said trying to lighten the mood. "It's probably nothing, just a malfunction in the server."

"You're probably right," Cover Girl said with a weak smile.

"So when do I leave?" Cyberdoll asked.

"As soon as Alpha Team returns." Cyberdoll thought about it for a moment.

"Tht means I'll have no time to get the things I need," she finally said. "My shifts ends when Alpha Team gets back." She reached into her bag and pulled out a pen and notepad- a tool she used with Snake Eyes before he taught her the basics of ASL. She then flipped it open to a clean page and quickly compiled a list of things she would need.

"I hate to ask this, but can you go to my room and gather these supplies," Cyberdoll asked while tearing the page out and handing it to Cover Girl. Cover Girl quickly looked over the list before looking up and smiling at her friend.

"It's no trouble at all," she said as she stood up. Cyberdoll tried to hand her the folder back but Cover Girl shook her head. "You keep it," she said. "You can look over it for the next…." She looked over at the clock to see it was three in the morning. "Two hours."

"Haha, thanks," Cyberdoll said, placing the folder down.

"You're so welcome," Cover Girl said walking away. "I'll give you your stuff when you're in the main hanger. Don't fall asleep till then!"

"Ngh!" Cyberdoll said sticking out her tongue. Cover Girl just laughed as she exited the room, leaving Cyberdoll to her work.

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Heavy Duty stretched his arms as he climbed out of the G.I. Joe plane. "Ah! It's good to be home," he said.

"I call dibs on shower," Scarlett said as she hopped off after him.

"What? No fair," Ripcord said jokingly. "There are more guys than you, we should have it first."

"Hm, I don't think so…," Scarlett replied sauntering off. Everyone laughed at their antics and Duke slapped his friend on the back.

"Just remember my friend, you asked for this," he said referring to Ripcord and Scarlett's surprising relationship.

"And damn proud of it!" A new round of laughter occurred just as Snake Eyes and Breaker stepped off the jet. "Hey…. Speaking of relationships," Ripcord said looking over at Snake Eyes. "How is it going with trying to woo Cyberdoll?" Snake Eyes fingers twitched as he resisted the urge to draw his katana on his team member.

'Must. Not. Kill…!'

"Ripcord… you're going into dangerous territory…," Breaker warned.

"What? It was only a simple question."

"Well don't yell for me if you find yourself hanging from the ceiling," Heavy Duty said. "And besides look who's coming." He pointed past everyone, making them all look to see Cyberdoll coming toward them. She wore her regular attire but a duffle bag and computer bag were slung over one shoulder and a file was in her hand.

"Hey guys!" she said coming to stand next to them.

"Hey there's my favorite vampire!" Ripcord said, throwing an arm around her shoulder. Snake Eyes tensed, not noticeable enough to see but he could feel the tension between his shoulder blades. "You ain't leaving us are ya?" Ripcord asked, completely oblivious. Cyberdoll laughed as she removed his arm.

"No, no," she said. "Hawk is sending me out on a little mission, is all. And besides," she continued while poking him in the side, making him jump. "Shouldn't you be with your girlfriend instead of flirting with me?"

"She's got you there, buddy," Duke said before looking at her. "He's just trying to heal his ego because Scarlett wouldn't invite him to shower with her."

"Oh, I see," Cyberdoll said, fighting down a blush as she listened to Heavy Duty and Breaker's snickers.

"Hey now!" Ripcord protested. "That's-"

"Hey!" Everyone looked to see the pilot of the still running jet poke his head out of the ramp. "Sorry to disturb the reunion, but we're on a schedule and I'm burning fuel."

"Ah… right. Sorry," Cyberdoll said moving toward the ramp. She turned to the guys, saying quickly, "I'll be back in a day or two, so Breaker, no breaking into any of my files at my desk or I'll swear that I'll put a virus on your personal computer that will send you back to the Stone Ages!"

"Right," Breaker said, knowing full well that the threat would be followed through, if he did anything that stupid. Cyberdoll turned back around and felt a hand on her shoulder. She hadn't realized she had almost passed Snake Eyes till she look up into his mask. The image of deep blue eyes flashed in her mind and quickly she shook her head to bring her back to reality.

Feeling a small squeeze on her shoulder, she smiled up at him, thinking she understood what he was saying. "It's okay. I'll be alright; you take care okay?" Slowly, Snake Eyes nodded and almost in a hesitant fashion, he released her. Quickly she scurried off and boarded the jet, barely having time to buckle in before it took off.

Back on the ground the men of Alpha Team watched the jet fly off. When it was out of the hanger Ripcord yelled, "And the ninja is rejected again! Man that girl can be so dense!" This made Snake Eyes think,

'That's it.' Before anyone could blink Snake Eyes suddenly was next to Ripcord delivering a punch to his shoulder. It wasn't at his full strength but it was strong enough to make sure Ripcord got the message not to mock Cyberdoll again.

"Ah!" Ripcord yelled in pain as he grabbed his shoulder. "Alright! Alright! I got it!" Snake Eyes nodded curtly with a small smug smile, hidden, on his lips before he walked away.

"You asked for that one, pal," Duke said patting Ripcord's uninjured shoulder before walking off. Heavy Duty and Breaker followed, repeating Duke's sentiments and following their 'leader', leaving Ripcord all alone.

"No sympathy for a brotha," he hissed, rubbing his shoulder. "No sympathy at all."

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*from the grave* please don't forget to r&r!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


	11. Chapter 11

**HAPPY NEW YEAR! As promised I have waited a month and upon recieving no word back, I have now posted the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy and thanks for your patience :)**

**Note: To _RedLion2 _thanks for pointing out the mistake. Went back and changed it.**

**And thanks to all of you who have reviewed/added the story to favorites. You all ROCK! You make me very happy that this story is still very popular. LOOK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE STORY FOR A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!**

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The ride to the _Resolver _was a rather quiet one with the exception of the rumble from the hover crafts engines and the chatter of the pilots. For the most of the trip, Cyberdoll tried to sleeping the rather uncomfortable chairs with no luck while the rest of the time was spent on her computer, doing a prognosis test of all G.I. Joe systems to make sure that they hadn't been hacked as well. It was a tiresome task but by the time they were near their destination, she had discovered none of the other systems had been broken into.

'Strange,' she thought, putting her laptop away. 'The _Resolver _is nothing special, just a regular surveillance submarine. Why would their systems be hacked into?' She bit her bottom lip as she contemplated the thought when one of the pilot's voices came over the intercom.

"ETA in three minutes."

Cyberdoll stood up and went up to the cockpit to look and the window to see where they were at. The vast blue ocean stared back at her calmly, while the sun reflected off its surface and yet, she couldn't see anything that was disturbing its surface. She looked down through her glasses at one of the pilots. "Are you sure this is where the _Resolver _will meet us?" she asked nervously. The man looked up at her with a frown, looking, unnecessarily, insulted that she had questioned him.

"Yes Ma'am," he said curtly. When he looked away from her, not offering anymore details, she sighed before looking back out the window. She frowned though when she noticed that one the ocean's surface there was an elongated dark spot coming into view. She leaned in closer for a better look causing one of the pilots to glare at her as she bumped into his shoulder.

"Sorry," she muttered, standing straight as something popped up from where the dark mass was. It was quickly followed by the rest of a darkly colored submarine and Cyberdoll looked at it curiously, trying to figure out how she was suppose to get aboard.

"Get ready to jump," one of the pilots said.

"Jump!" Cyberdoll practically yelled in alarm as she looked between the two pilots. "Jump where!" One pilot pointed to the tower like structure that rested on top of the sub.

"The sail," he said. "It's where the hatch is. We'll lower the hover craft down close to it and you'll jump."

"Isn't there another way?" she asked as her throat suddenly went dry. Both pilots looked up at her with questioning looks.

"We could always push ya," one pilot offered with a smirk.

"Ha, ha," she replied sarcastically before leaving the cockpit.

'Lots of firsts on this trip,' she thought dryly as she went over to her stuff and gathered it up. Once finished, she looked up to see one of the pilots come into the back.

"Sorry about my partner's behavior," he said, going over to the hatch door. "Your first jump in awhile?"

"Why would have been your first clue?" she bit back.

"Well someone's cranky."

"Sorry," Cyberdoll muttered feeling a little guilty at biting the man's head off. "But you would be too if you worked nightshift then had t go on a mission without any sleep."

"Ahhhh, I see," the pilot said in understanding. "Yeah, I'm still running on adrenaline from our last mission." He paused to give her a once over. "You want some advice?" he asked. Cyberdoll nodded silently. "Walk fast and when you jump, don't keep your feet together." The light in the room suddenly turned red and the pilot turned towards the panel beside the hatch. He typed in a few numbers before looking back at her.

"Good luck," he said before the hatch opened and his voice was quickly drowned out by the sound of the hover craft's engines.

Cyberdoll's eyes widened as a sudden panic gripped her as she looked at the short jump she had to do. She felt a sharp slap on her back and looked up at the pilot.

He gave her a quick, reassuring smile which she returned with a weak one. She then looked back at the hatch and took a deep breath before backing up a little.

In a brisk walk, she approached the door, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. She felt the sudden shift on the ground as she descended the steps but paid no heed until she reached the last step.

There, she jumped but, forgetting the pilot's advice, she joined her feet together as instinct took over. The impact jarred her to the core, even making her teeth chatter together, and she stumbled a bit to the point of almost falling.

Luckily though, she caught herself and stood up straight as she looked back to give the pilot a smile. A sudden sense of relief filled her as she gave him a thumb up. The pilot returned the gesture before sealing up the hatch and the hover craft pulled up before zooming off.

Cyberdoll watched it for a bit before turning around when she heard a hiss coming from behind her. The hatch door flipped open to allow a tall young man come out.

"Cyberdoll?" he asked looking at her as he approached her. Cyberdoll nodded as she pushed up her glasses. "Please, go down then," he said briskly, indicating the hatch. "Then wait for me at the bottom and I'll take you to Captain Nemo."

Cyberdoll didn't think much of his brutish behavior towards her, but none the less did as he requested without complaint.

Feet first, she steadily descended down the ladder, rung by rung. At the bottom she saw another hatch and quickly approached that one before going down again. The first thing that greeted her was the darkly lit control room. Various murmurs could be heard as people looked up at her, as she landed on the ground, before looking away to speak to their neighbors while others minded their own business.

A noise from above caused Cyberdoll to look up just as the man that greeted her was coming down. He stopped when his head passed the portal and quickly he closed and sealed it. Once that was done, he jumped the rest of the way down, grunting at the impact.

After that a shout rang out from behind her, "Bring us down! 40° angle at 20 knots! Depth: 200! Head bound for North with 45° longitude by 45° latitude!" Quickly the repeats of what was just said were heard throughout the room as Cyberdoll stared at the man in center. He was a tall stern looking man with peppered hair, watching and listening to his men around him with a gaze that could freeze ones blood.

Cyberdoll felt the sub shift beneath her causing a weird sensation of feeling like she was going to fall. She quickly stepped forward to balance herself out, accidentally bumping into a man that was walking past her. The man stiffened his spine considerably before helping her stand correctly. "Careful," he said, though Cyberdoll couldn't help but hear the undertone of 'watch it!' underneath it. He then let her go of her and walked away, coming to stand next to the door.

She looked away from him to the young man next to her, only to see that he was walking away from her to the captain. Quickly, she followed and when they came to stand next to him they presented themselves with a crisp salute. "At ease," the captain said.

Cyberdoll relaxed but felt her skin get goosebumps as Captain Nemo gave her a once ofver with a look of contempt on his face. The man raised a hand to her, which she placed her own in, to give a firm handshake. "Captain Nemo," the man said, introducing himself.

"Cyberdoll," she said back.

"Welcome aboard," Captain Nemo said though it sounded rather forced. "I'm very sure you are tired after your long trip. My COB," he continued, pointing to the man by the door that Cyberdoll had accidentally bumped into. "Wench, will take you to your quarters." He was about to turn away when Cyberdoll hurriedly spoke,

"Sir, permission to speak freely?" The captain stopped and gave her a hard look that was unreadable but still gave her goosebumps.

"Permission granted," he said wearily after a long pause. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Cyberdoll continued,

"With all due respect Sir, I would really like to get started on my work." Her body completely disgreed with her but she pushed her weariness aside in order to do her job.

Captain Nemo's eyes narrowed at her, as if trying to figure out some hidden motive she had. "You sure?" he finally asked.

"Yes Sir," Cyberdoll said adamantly. The captain looked like he was going to protest, so she quickly added. "Sir, your submarine's firewall was broken into. It's a very serious issue that must be looked at immediately." The captain looked hesitant at first but nodded after a minute. He then cooled his expression to a blank one and looked at the young man by her side.

"Sparrow," he said.

"Yes, Sir!" the young man- Sparrow- said, snapping to attention.

"Take Cyberdoll to your station, where we first spotted the hack." Sparrow pursed his lips together, not looking entirely happy about it but none the less said,

"Yes, Sir."

"You both are dismissed then," Captain Nemo said turning away. The duo nodded and quickly Cyberdoll followed Sparrow over to one of the terminals near the back of the room. Once there, Cyberdoll placed her bags on the ground before looking at Sparrow, who was staring, or glaring to be more precise, at her intently.

"If you don't mind me asking," she asked with a bit of hesitancy as she was a bit unnerved by his gaze. "What does your station do?"

"I monitor the activity on the sub," was the cold reply.

"I see…," Cyberdoll muttered as she pushed up her glasses. "And has anyone but you used this station?"

"Mostly it's me, but Captain Nemo, COB Wrench, and Flybones, the other technician on this station, have used it as well," he replied evenly, still staring at her. It was really starting to freak Cyberdoll out, so to distract herself, she reached down to her laptop bag and pulled out her laptop and a USB cord.

She then sat down at the terminal and began hooking up everything when she heard someone yell, "Sparrow!" Both of them looked up to see Wrench approaching them. "Captain wants you down in the navigation room to help the others," Wrench continued once he stopped in front of them. Sparrow frowned, looking between Cyberdoll and Wrench.

"Yes, Sir," Sparrow said finally though rather sullenly. Both men then left without giving Cyberdoll a single good-bye.

Cyberdoll sighed, refocusing back on the computers in front of her. She was unused to the brutish treatment she was receiving but pushed her own feelings aside for now. She had a job to do and besides, it was only going to be for a couple of days, what could possibly go wrong?

* * *

**NOTE: I HAVE A SPECIAL REQUEST FOR ALL YOU ARTIST OUT THERE! Yep, you guessed it. I am curious to see a picture of the characters from this story. You can do whatever you like but it must have one of my characters from the story. I would ask for commission but I have no money and I would have made it a contest but the only thing I could offer the winner is a story/one-shot of their own, so as you can see I just as for requests. Send me a little thing, cause I really want to see what you all think :)**

**Good luck for those who wish to do this. And if you are DA you can also find me there. Look on my profile for the information.**


	12. Chapter 12

**My muse! It has returned! Sorry for the long anticipated wait!**

* * *

**Chapter 12**

Hours ticked by in the darkness of the _Resolver_ yet Cyberdoll took no notice as she toiled away at the computer terminal she was at. Every firewall, every number sequence did not escape her scrutiny; she wouldn't be satisfied until she made sure she knew who was hacking them and stopping them. Everyone else went on with their regular business though Cyberdoll had noticed sometimes some of the crew members would send her various looks that she ignored but still made her slightly uncomfortable. Then again she had noticed that ALL the crew members were _men; _not once had she seen a woman aboard. She tried to figure out why then remember Heavy Duty (whenever she had spoken to the big guy) once telling her that only men served on submarines; it would explain why some of them looked at her like a piece of meat to anger for "invading" their "man space". One such person had to be Sparrow, he practically stalked the room whenever he could, glancing her way constantly. It got so bad, even Captain Nemo had to order him out of the room.

Other than the distance of the people around her, Cyberdoll worked as best as she could. She started with the outer most firewall and hadn't found anything too out of the ordinary though there was a small hole that could have been left over from the previous hack and was easily fixable. She was about to start on the inner wall when a surprise yawn crept up on her.

Covering her mouth she leaned back in her chair as exhaustion came crashing down on her. _'What time is it?' _she thought as she rubbed her eyes. Looking at the clock on her laptop, she blinked in surprise to see it was 4 A.M. _'Are you serious? I've been working for 10 hours straight? No wonder I'm tired.'_

"Need some coffee?" Cyberdoll asked jumped in her seat and spun the chair around, nearly knocking it over in the process. She was surprised to see Sparrow standing there hold two Styrofoam cups.

"Wha…?" Cyberdoll asked, clearly surprised.

"I said, do you need some coffee?" His body language said he was annoyed but the tone he used was a bit nervous.

"Ah… sure…." Sparrow set one of the cups down and grabbed a nearby empty chair, setting it next to her. Cyberdoll took the cup that was set down rather suspiciously. She looked at him and back at the cup before bringing it up to her lips and taking a sip. _'Nothing tastes different…,'_ she thought forcing herself to swallow the sludge that was called "coffee".

"You're acting like I drugged it," Sparrow noted causing Cyberdoll to jump again. She looked at him and, giving him the benefit of the doubt, smiled at him.

"You never know," she attempted to joke. He seemed to have missed it though as he glanced at the terminal she was and said defensively,

"My momma taught me better than that."

_'Did she also teach you any manners?' _Cyberdoll thought darkly as she put down her coffee and turned back to her computer to work again.

They both sat there for a few minutes in silence. Cyberdoll shifted uncomfortably in her seat as Sparrow continued to watch her while sipping his coffee. "…So, have you located the hack yet?" Sparrow suddenly asked. Cyberdoll jumped again and looked over at him. He shifted in his seat, his eyes mostly focused on the terminal. Cyberdoll looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"…No," she said, deciding not to tell him about the small hole she had found. "Though I've just worked on the outer firewall." That didn't seem to calm Sparrow down at all; in fact, he seemed to grow more nervous. She studied him carefully for a full minute before carefully asking, "Is there something… I should find?"

Sparrow cast a nervous glance around the room, in that instant losing his tough guy persona and looking more like a boy who got his hand caught in a cookie jar. He then looked back at Cyberdoll and leaned in close to her before whispering, "If I tell you something, you promise not to report me will you?" Cyberdoll considered his question.

"Depends…," she finally said. "On how serious it is." Sparrow nodded and cleared his throat. He was silent for a minute before beginning.

"You've got to understand something first," he whispered. "Being on a sub all you see around you are other guys and you kind of get lonely after awhile…."

"Uh-huh…."

"And even when you dock it's kind of hard to meet women and have a steady relationship…." Cyberdoll suddenly developed a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. "And on a sub you can't get any wi-fi in the middle of the ocean…." Sparrow shifted in his seat again, uneasily. He licked his dry lips and said in an even lower voice,

"So I kind of hacked into the G.I. Joe system to go to an online dating site…." Cyberdoll's jaw dropped in stunned silence. She looked at the man before her with wide eyes unsure if to smack him for his stupidity or laugh from the stupidity of the situation.

"Please don't tell my superiors about this," Sparrow begged, snapping Cyberdoll out of her thoughts. "I beg you!" Cyberdoll closed her mouth and sent him a sharp glare. Usually she would have been nice in a situation like this but she was exhausted and she _not _nice when she was exhausted.

"I cannot believe you!" she hissed. "You of all people should know better! Someone could've back tracked you!"

"I know! I know! I was stupid-"

"'Stupid' does not even begin to describe the situation you caused!" She let out a frustrated growl as she turned back to her computer. She typed in something before pushing it over to Sparrow. "Give me the website, your username, and password," she demanded. Sparrow gave her a confused look.

"Wha-"

"I am shutting you down. I cannot let you continue to put G.I. Joe in jeopardy." Sparrow opened his mouth to protest but Cyberdoll hissed, "Give me everything you have or so help me I _will _report you!" Sparrow paled at her threat and quickly did as he was told.

Once he was done, Cyberdoll took her computer back and typed something in. She didn't bother to glance at the site or Sparrow's profile, just immediately deleted it and the proceeded to block the site. She also set blocks on other dating sites so this could never happen again. After she was done she disconnected her laptop, deciding to look at the inner firewall after she slept, and gathered her stuff together. Without glancing at Sparrow she grabbed her duffle bag and computer bag, and walked off in a huff not really caring that she didn't know the way to her room.

"Hey wait!" Sparrow yelled running after her. She continued to ignore the technician as she brushed past personal who gave them confused looks. "I said wait!" He grabbed her wrist and pulled them both to a stop.

"What!" she yelled turning to face him with a harsh glare. Sparrow flinched from her sharp voice and did his best to look apologetic. "Look, I'm sorry," he said. "And I know that I can't say that enough for you to believe me. I put everyone's lives in danger for something stupid." Slowly Cyberdoll's anger began to ebb away, in its place the exhaustion that had been there previously.

"Yeah it was," she said lamely as she shook his hand off. She was about to walk away again when Sparrow asked,

"So you won't report me right?" She sent him a semi-heated glare.

"As long as you don't do it again, my lips are sealed," she finally conceded. Sparrow's face morphed into one of clear relief and he even gave a little smile.

"Thank you. Thank you so much!" Cyberdoll shrugged but suddenly turned her head to the side to cover a surprise yawn. "Here," Sparrow said taking her duffle bag from her. "I'll take you to your room." Cyberdoll didn't have the energy to fight him but managed to mutter a 'thank you' before following him.

They remained quiet nearly all the way. The sleeping quarters of the sub was 2 levels down so they had to go down two ladders; unfortunately they didn't even make it down the first set when an automatic voice came over the intercoms.

"Attention all personal, unidentified submarine has been located. Please report to your stations. I repeat…." Both Cyberdoll and Sparrow looked at each other. All softness was gone in Sparrow's face, leaving determination in its place. Without a word he climbed back up the ladder with Cyberdoll quickly scrambling up after him.

Getting to the top, Cyberdoll barely dodged passing men as they ran to where ever they were going. "Here," Sparrow said tossing her the duffle bag. Looking at him Cyberdoll watched as he pointed down the hall. "Go down the hall, past two ladders, and take the third one down. Go left until you reach the escape pods and wait there." He then tried to leave but Cyberdoll wasn't about to have that just yet.

"And what am I supposed to do then?" she demanded following him, struggling with both her bags in the crowded halls. Before Sparrow could respond the submarine suddenly rocked violently, leaving everyone barely time to catch themselves before falling.

Instantly the lights turned red and a siren went off. "Attention personal, please report to battle stations immediately. Repeat…."

"Come on," Sparrow said, grabbing her forearm and beginning to drag her along. Chaos seemed to rein supreme as men ran up and down the tight halls, pushing and shoving to get to their destinations. Unused to the fast pace, Cyberdoll was almost tripping over her own feet and the bags she were carrying were not helping one bit. She lost track of where they were going until Sparrow suddenly stopped, almost causing her to crash into him. Without pause he grabbed her duffle bag and practically shoved it down on for the ladder holes before facing her.

"You need to go, now!" Cyberdoll hesitated for a moment, but seeing as it wasn't her place to argue or the fact that she wasn't a combatant, she nodded and started to going down the ladder.

As she stepped on the first rung the sub rocked again, nearly causing her to fall. "Attention! Attention!" Captain Nemo's voice called harshly through the speaker. "All able personal to the stern! Prepare to be boarded and engage the enemy!"

"GO!" Sparrow shouted. Not having to be told twice, Cyberdoll quickly went down. She gathered her bags and quickly went left. She ran past men carrying guns who were scrambling to get to the back of the sub but she maintained her focus on getting herself to the escape pod room.

It wasn't long until she found herself nearing the end of the sub and panicked slightly thinking that she had missed the room when she saw a door to her left, clearly labeled "Escape Pods."

Quickly pushing the door open she was immediately greeted by the dark interior of the room. Had the red lights not been on she wouldn't have been able to see the pods hanging from the ceilings. The room ran the length of the sub allowing there to be enough pods for the ship crew and a few extra passengers. She noticed some pods were missing but barely gave it a thought as she made her way to the nearest pod, opening the lid, and stuffing her bags at the feet.

She hesitated thought as she was about to get in. All her instincts were yelling at her to get into the pod but something in her stomach was telling her _not _too, having a bad feeling that if she did something bad would happen.

_'This is ridiculous!' _she told herself. _'Get in the pod!' _But her body didn't want to listen, instead reaching in and searching through the survival compartment which all came equipped with a semi-automatic hand gun. She may not know how to handle most guns but hand guns she did know from basic training.

Putting in the ammunition she promised that she would _not _leave the room but at least stay until someone came. Stupid, she knew, bit if someone _was _in need she could at least help them. Closing the pod, she quickly hid herself from the doors sight and waited.

The minutes ticked by, though they felt more like hours to her. She was about to give up as he fear and doubt crept to the surface of her brain when the door opened. In stumbled in Sparrow, a deep cut on the side of his head and holding his bleeding side. "Oh God!" Cyberdoll whispered rushing to his side. "What happened?" Sparrow looked at her through narrowed eyes.

"You're not supposed to be here," he hissed.

"Well I am here, so get over it," she snapped back. Sparrow muttered something darkly as he walked past her to get into a pod.

"Come on! We don't have much time, I was able to seal the ladder port but I don't know how long it will hold them."

"What about everyone else? And who is 'them'?" Sparrow paused to look at her.

"Cobra. And don't worry about the others, there are hidden doorways all over the ship to get to this room, this is just the main entrance." He went back to walk and it took a moment for the information to pass through Cyberdoll's brain but once it did she kicked herself into high gear.

She immediately started helping Sparrow with his own pod and was about to start towards her own when the door burst opened again. Both Joes froze as a Neo Viper entered into the room. Its skull mask glared harshly back at them and neither of them had time to react as it raised its gun and began firing. Sparrow ducked behind his pod while Cyberdoll barely was able to hide herself behind the nearest one.

Both of them looked at each other as the bullets ricocheted off the pods. "Toss me your gun!" Sparrow yelled. Nodding, Cyberdoll put the safety on and waited until the bullets had stopped. The moment they did she didn't waste a moment to toss Sparrow the weapon.

Grabbing it, Sparrow unlocked the safety and, using the pod as a shield, began firing at the enemy. One bullet went through the shoulder, another two to the chest and it momentarily stunned the Viper giving both Joes enough time to escape. "Come on!" Sparrow said grabbing Cyberdoll's wrist.

Both of them took off down the corridor, still using the pods as shields. They didn't make it far when the bullets started again, causing both of them to take cover. Cyberdoll heard a feminine yelp and had the situation not been so dire she would have been embarrassed since it came from her. Then again she would have also liked nothing better to do then just hide somewhere and cry but now was not the time to panic. So when the second barrage of bullets had stopped and Sparrow had fired a few shots of his own both of them took off running with Cyberdoll in the lead this time. Bringing up the rear, Sparrow was able to continue to fire a few more shots off and Cyberdoll had to occasionally look back to see if he was still keeping up with her.

Turning to look behind her at one point she suddenly found herself running into something hard and fell backwards, almost losing her glasses. Hitting the ground hard, she had thought that she had run into a pod until she looked up. "Shit!" she yelled as she scrambled away from a second Neo Viper. As Sparrow stated joining her, he let out his own curse and began to raise his gun. He never got to fire off a shot through as the Viper suddenly launched itself at him. One hand wrapped around his wrist with the gun as the other grabbed hold of his throat and shoved him harshly against the wall. Sparrow cried out from the impact as the gun fell to the floor with a loud clatter. Cyberdoll watched in horror as the Viper slowly started chocking the other technician. He struggled it its grasp but clearly it was a futile fight and quickly losing.

Carefully so not to attract attention, but quickly, grabbed the knife from her boot. She then scrambled up and, with a loud roar, went at the Viper. "Let go of him!"

She wasn't sure where she was aiming but ended up embedding her knife in the Viper's shoulder. Nothing happened; not a sound, not a twitch. Wide-eyed, Cyberdoll was frozen in place as the Viper coolly turned its metal head towards her. Suddenly she found her grip on the knife was encased by another; frantically she struggled in the Viper's grip but it wouldn't let her go.

The Viper lets grip go of Sparrow and for a split second Cyberdoll was slightly relieved to see he was still breathing before the Viper turned its full attention on her. Suddenly something hard came in contact with her cheek and sent her flying to the floor causing her glasses to fall off. She gasped as the pain floored her, leaving her momentarily stunned. Once she got over it, she tried to scramble away but the Viper grabbed by the collar and struck her again.

Cyberdoll tasted the copper of blood but didn't give it much thought as strong hands wrapped around her throat. She fought and clawed at her assailant feeling the crushing grip on her windpipe. She gasped for air and the outside of her vision began to darken. She was terrified as her limbs started getting heavy. _'No, no, no, no, no!' _she thought frantically as she tried to stay conscious.

It was a losing battle as her vision started getting darker and her breath coming less and less. Friends and family faces passed through her mind. _'Snake Eyes….'_

Just as the darkness was about to encompass her, she heard a vague yell and she hoped it was Snake Eyes before everything went dark.


	13. Chapter 13

**Next Chapter! Woo-hoo! I'll try to post the next chapter this coming week. But no promises. School is slamming me with work.**

* * *

Chapter 13

"Woah! It feels so good to be back on base!" The Alpha team agreed with Ripcord's statement as they piled out of the hover jet. Another rough and tumble, emergency response mission, another victory won by G.I. Joe, and again coming back exhausted to the point of collapsing on the spot. Snake Eyes hopped off last, feeling just as worn as everyone else but didn't feel as excited to be home because Cyberdoll wasn't there. He could have sighed in disappointment but held his composure as he followed everyone. They wondered into the rec room where everyone, except Snake Eyes, took a seat on the center couch. They started talking about trivial things until they had to be called in for briefing but as it was, they were just happy to sit and relax for a bit. For his part, Snake Eyes went over to his weapons rake and grabbed his cleaning supplies before taking a seat in a nearby chair.

He listened to everyone while starting to clean his katana but stopped when he heard the main doors open. Looking up he wasn't surprised to see Cover Girl walk through but he felt something wasn't right. Usually she would come for pre-briefing with the team but now she wasn't holding a clipboard and there wasn't her usual friendly smile on her face. She wasn't standing straight and her hair was in slight disarray. But what caught his attention the most was her red and swollen eyes; something was definitely wrong.

"Hey Cover Girl!" Ripcord said from his spot on the couch, waving one arm in a wave while the other was wrapped around Scarlet's shoulders. "What's up?" Cover Girl gave a weak smile.

"I'm alright." It was a lie; her voice was low and scratchy, a voice of someone who had been crying.

"What's wrong?" Duke asked with the worry evident in his tone. Cover Girl didn't say anything but came over to the couch and took a seat. She sat there a moment, clearly unsure about what to say before clearing her throat.

"An hour ago we received news from one of our reconnaissance subs, the _Resolver_." The room feel deathly silent. "They fell under attack from Cobra and… by the time we sent a response team it was completely destroyed and we were unable to find any survivors…." She sounded detached but her voice caught at the end as her emotion bled through. Taking a deep breath to calm herself she went on. "General Hawk has ordered that a vigil be held tonight. There won't be any names but I felt you all should be aware…." Her voice caught again but she forced herself in a whisper to continue on. "Cyberdoll…. Cyberdoll was on the submarine." She then burst into tears as the emotions overwhelmed her while everyone else fell into a shocked silence.

"Wh-what?" Breaker asked in disbelief. Cover Girl tried to gather herself together again but was only able to do it a little as she said through her tears a little louder,

"She… she was on the … _Resolver_…." Scarlet came over to Cover Girl and gathered her into a tight hug while everyone still processed the information.

It felt like someone had punched Snake eyes in the gut when he heard what was said. He wanted to deny it all, like it was all some sort of sick joke. Putting his katana down, he shakily stood and approached everyone, feeling like a part of himself was dying with every step.

Coming to a stop behind the couch he vaguely heard Duke ask if Rain had been informed but he didn't really care. Standing there silently he watched his friend's faces with frowns and saddened eyes as the reality of the situation hit home. They had all lost comrades at some point and time, but never have they lost someone so close to them all. In a matter of seconds, Snake Eyes own reality sank in and he suddenly found the room very tiny and too crowded. Quietly, before anyone noticed, he left and vacated the room.

His mind was numb and he didn't really know where his feet were taking him as long as it was someplace where people weren't around. His journey led him to his own bedroom door; it couldn't have been a better choice. Stepping inside he tore off his mask and took a deep breath of air as if it was his first. Tears welled and fell from his eyes as he stumbled further in. _'Cyberdoll….'_

He felt sick to his stomach and slightly disoriented. He didn't want to believe it, that she was still here and that he would see her smiling face, but deep down he knew, knew that she was gone.

'_You should have protected her,' _a little voice said to him. _'You should have never let her go.'_

'_I had no choice….' _He shot back feeling his jaw tighten.

'_You did and now she's gone….'_

'_No….'_

'_Yes, she's gone. Just like your parents, like your friends, just like your Sensei-'_

'_NO!'_

Suddenly his leg kicked jerked out from under him, kicking the low table in the center of the room, effectively flipping it over and making it fly until it hit the wall. It didn't stop his rage and grief though, so he grabbed the closest thing next to him and threw that as well. And when that didn't help he continued to grab and kick objects letting all his emotions out on everything in his sight.

The weapons ended up skewed across the floor with some of his swords embedding in the walls. The low table he had kicked ended up receiving his pain again this time splitting the wood everywhere. The sitting pillows were ripped in pieces leaving feathers everywhere. His fine china cabinet was flipped over, shattering everything into tiny pieces. His shoji wall had punch mark through it and the bed was flipped over and the fabric destroyed as well.

When everything was thoroughly destroyed was when Snake Eyes finally stopped. Standing, shaking, in the center of his room breathing heavily, feeling hot tears run down his face. _'Why?... Why'd it have to be her?'_

Feeling drained, he collapsed to his knees. He placed his sobbing face into his hands, hiding it from the harsh world and began rocking back and forth repeating the question over and over again in his mind.

* * *

It was like swimming through thick water in the middle of the night. It was so dark and heavy but blessedly silent. She could've stayed that way forever. And perhaps she would have if she hadn't heard a muffled noise.

Curious, she followed it, struggling against the blackness. The noise grew louder and louder but still to muffled. Finally she was hearing syllables that sounded like her name. Struggling more, her name became clearer and clearer. When she felt she was almost about to see who was calling her, her energy was drained and she felt exhausted. She almost thought about stopping and just resting but decided to give it one more shot. So gathering the last of her strength, she gave it all she got and surged forward.

"CYBERDOLL!"

* * *

Her eyes snapping open with a gasp. Calming her breathing, it took her a moment to realize her vision was still blurry with bright lights in her face. On instinct, she tried to raise her arm but was met with resistant. _'Huh?' _She tried raising her other hand but was met with the same thing and when she tried to move her head she found she couldn't move that either. A panic began to arise in her in her as she tried to move with no avail. She was in such a panic she almost missed the voice that was calling her name.

"Cyberdoll! Cyberdoll!" Stopping her struggle, she gathered her thoughts trying to remember the voice.

"Sp-Sparrow?" She heard a relieved sigh.

"Jesus, I'm glad you're awake."

"Wha-What's going on? Where are we?"

"Cobra, I think. I don't know how we got here though…." Cyberdoll tried to recall what had happened. She remembered the attack on the sub, running to the escape pod room and waiting, then Sparrow coming in followed by the Viper….

"Oh God…."

"He it's going to be ok you hear?" Sparrow said trying to comfort her. "You're going to make it."

"Right," she said trying to assure herself. Closing her eyes she took a deep breath to calm herself. Opening to blurry vision again, she asked,

"How are you holding up? With the side wound I mean." She heard a shaky laugh.

"Ok I guess. Looks like they stopped it from bleeding for the most part but it hurts like hell." Cyberdoll could sympathize with that; the side of her face that had received the punches throbbed numbly and her throat was some-what soar. "How about you?"

"Ok for the most part." A silence fell between the two of them. Cyberdoll thoughts were all scrambled; who else survived? How long have they been here? Did the other Joes know where they were? She doubted that Sparrow knew so she kept everything to herself as she listened to his breathing.

"Hey…."

"Yeah?" Cyberdoll asked. More silence from his end.

"….You scared?" She thought about his question, finding it very odd to ask at a time like this.

"Terrified," she admitted. She heard another shaky laugh.

"Glad I'm not the only one. You don't look that terrified though."

"Huh? How can you-"

"I have a reflective surface in front of me. I can see you; that's how I figured out you were here."

"Oh…." Another silence.

"Hey…," Sparrow said again.

"Hmmm?"

"…I want to tell you my real name; it's Michael Baker. I'm from Riley, Wisconsin. I have a sister- Emma- and I want you to tell her-

"Woah! Hey!"

"That I'm sorry and I love her." Silence engulfed them again.

"…Why did you tell me that?" Cyberdoll asked.

"...I … I don't think I'm gonna make it-"

"That's ridiculous! You-"

"Listen!" Cyberdoll grew quiet and waited.

"I don't think that Cobra was kind enough to stop the internal bleeding…." The implications made Cyberdoll's throat tight. Without proper care he could bleed out…. "So are you going to do what I asked?"

"Yeah," Cyberdoll said with a tight voice. "Your Michael Baker from Riley, Wisconsin. You have a sister- Em-" Suddenly she heard noises.

"Quick! Close your eyes!" Sparrow whispered. "Pretend you're asleep!" Following his advice, she closed her eyes and laid perfectly still like she was asleep, trying to calm her rapid heartbeat.

"-And I do not take failure lightly!" A voice said as some doors opened. Cyberdoll nearly opened her eyes at hearing the raspy voice of Cobra Commander.

"Just because I didn't get you Breaker doesn't mean I failed you! I got you the next best thing, her!" Cyberdoll's blood froze in her body as she listened to Captain Nemo's voice. "If I hadn't stopped your Neo Viper from killing her you would have had nothing!"

"I wanted Breaker! There is no guarantee that she will know the information I want!"

"Look, she may know direct access codes for the main frame, you never know. Why don't you use your nanomites to control her? Then you can have someone-"

"On the inside? You fool! Don't you think I already thought of that? But I will not waste my precious nanomites on something like her! Joe has new scans now for nanomite detection! And I'm looking for something specific! I could go to any hacker in Joe if I wished if I wanted just to access the main frame!"

"Then perhaps you could trade her? She precious to them! I just want the money you promised me." There was a silence that followed. Cyberdoll listened as someone approached the side of bed.

"Of course…," the Cobra Commander said. "Destro, show him to his… money." Cyberdoll had to stop herself from flinching as she listened to a low grunt and as a slicing of metal being pulled from flesh filled the air. It was quickly followed by a thump that Cyberdoll knew what had happened but didn't dare think about it.

"Get rid of the trash," she heard Cobra Commander say. She then felt something on the side of her face and ran down to her chin. It could have been a loving caress if Cyberdoll hadn't known who was most likely touching her. "Wake up my Sweet. I know you're awake." He caressed her again, causing Cyberdoll to shiver in disgust as she opened her eyes.

"Though she couldn't see details, she could see the apparatus that covered a sickly white face that was framed by stringy black hair. Two black eyes stared down at her, making her skin crawl.

"Ah, there now, much better. How are we feeling?"

"G-go to hell," Cyberdoll said hating the tremble in her voice as well as listening to Cobra Commander's sickly sweet voice as he laughed.

""Ah such fire, to waste such a thing would be a pity." He moved his hand until it was cupping the lower part of her chin. "But remember who you are speaking too. Perhaps you can be of use to me perhaps not. Either way I have your life in my hands."

"You leave her alone you bastard!" Cobra Commander looked up to where Sparrow must have been before looking down at her.

"Perhaps I should demonstrate how easily I could take your life."

"You leave him alone!" Cyberdoll yelled struggling against her bonds. Cobra Commander left her line of sight as she heard Sparrow start yelling.

"Don't touch me!"

"Sparrow!" She struggled more against her bonds, knowing it was useless but still trying anyway.

"Don't give them a thing! You hear me Cyberdoll! Don't give them a damn thing!" His voice was getting farther away.

"No! Sparrow!" Tears trickled down from the corner of her eyes as he continued to yell at her, even as a door opened and closed. Then came a painful yell followed by another. With a sob, she was forced to listen as they grew more intense and painful, praying that someone would come soon.

* * *

**DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW PLEASE!**


	14. Chapter 14

**...17 pages... 17 motherfucking goddamn pages... I really hope you are all happy case my hands and my wrists hate all of you right now...**

* * *

**Chapter 14**

The cool air tickled the back of Snake Eyes nose as he inhaled deeply. He tried to remove all thoughts and emotions but the feeling of numbness would not go away; perhaps he didn't want it to.

He tried for a few more minutes without success, so gave up on his meditation. Instead he just sat in the darkness of the training room, letting it absorb every emotion he was feeling. The silence was deafening but he didn't want to get up and leave. Leaving meant he would have to face the world and having to go to the vigil where everyone else was. Leaving meant abandoning his heart here on the floor in hopes of carrying on. It meant trying to forget all the feelings he had for Cyberdoll.

He didn't want to forget.

So he sat there on the floor instead, letting every emotion he had come forth. Under his mask he could feel tears coming out of his eyes and blending into the fabric as he recalled every memory he had with Cyberdoll. He remembered her smile, her laugh, every line on her sweet face. It was tormenting him but he couldn't let it go.

Thinking about every interaction the two shared he almost missed when the main doors opened behind him. He didn't turn around, but sat perfectly still, pretending he was in meditation even as the overhead lights turned on. He listened to footsteps approach him and it took him a moment to realize it was Duke.

"Hey." Breaking his stillness, Snake Eyes looked behind him to Duke. "Mind if I sit down with you?" he asked with a small smile. Nodding, Snake Eyes indicated to the spot on his left.

Coming up on the mat, Duke flopped down next to him. They both sat in silence. Snake Eyes could guess why Duke was there but the ninja decided he wasn't going to do anything. He didn't want to talk to anyone right now, especially if it was about Cyberdoll. Duke was always full of surprises though.

"I know you don't want to talk to anyone right now," he suddenly said. "But I find that at least having someone in the room always comforting." Turning his head a little, Snake Eyes indicated to his comrade that he was listening but saw that Duke wasn't even looking at him, but rather at the wall in front of them. "And I also know it's very good to listen to others, so I just want you to hear me out.

"I know that you… cared for Cyberdoll deeply. Hell, practically everyone in Joe knows. I also know that her death hit you the most because of it. I'm not saying that everything will be alright and you'll get better. Comforting words can only do so much with what you're going through right now. Trust me, I understand." He paused letting Snake Eyes absorb what he said. After thinking about it, Snake Eyes did know Duke understood, maybe not in the same way though.

During Cobra Commander's escape, Ana had suddenly disappeared. Many thought she had gone back to Cobra yet months later she showed up on the grid in London. Going to investigate, Duke had been so excited and worried. He still loved her and perhaps that's what made it hurt worse when they saw she was starting a new life. She was engaged and when Duke had confronted her by herself she told him that although she still loved him, she had to move on. It tore Duke's heart up as he left her there and went back with them and everyone had to watch him pick up the pieces of his heart. Yes, Duke did understand in a way.

"So I just want you to know," he continued making Snake Eyes focus on him again noticing this time Duke was looking at him. "That when you do want to talk, you can always come to me about it."

Snake Eyes sat there for a few minutes, feeling very touched by Duke's offer. Though him and Duke weren't the closest of friends, they were still friends none the less but it made Snake Eyes happy that he had support in his grief. Nodding, he received a bright smile from Duke.

"Good," Duke said patting Snake Eyes on the shoulder. "I'll let you get back to your meditating then." He started moving upward and was about to stand when General Hawk's voice came over the intercom.

"Alpha Team, report to the Command Center. I repeat, Alpha Team report to the Command Center." The two Alpha Team members glanced at each other, getting into their battle ready modes, just before both of them stood and hit the ground running to their destination.

* * *

Moments later, the two of them rushed through the Command Room main doors. Already everyone else was there, gathered around the main hub.

Joining them, Duke looked at Scarlett. "Do you know why we were called?" he asked. Scarlett shook her head.

"He was waiting for you and Snake Eyes to get here."

"And now I will tell you," General Hawk said coming up to them. A stern look was on his face as he looked at every one of them in the eye.

"We believe we found Cobra's hideout." Like the well trained soldiers they were, none of them gasped or said anything but all of them stood a little straighter. Cutting through them, Hawk went up to the hub and brought up a map of Indonesia. He drew it closer to the bottom center of the map near a small cluster of islands.

"An hour ago one of our satellites picked up on a signal from a crew member of the _Resolver." _A little red dot showed up on the screen along with the name of 'Sparrow.' The location wasn't exactly on an island but in the ocean near it. "All of our crew members of subs are injected with a tracking chip. Unfortunately today out original satellite was down for repairs and we had to use one that couldn't pick them up. When we were able to bring our satellite back up we scanned the area where they were with no contact. We continued to expand until we found that dot." The dot then disappeared. "A few moments after we picked up the signal we lost it. We tried using our technology to locate it again with no luck. Now we are sending you in." He looked at each of them again before looking back at the screen. "If there are others their trackers are probably being masked." He pulled up a 3D model of the area then switched it to thermal imaging. Big large hot spots were shown underground with little sprouts coming from them to above ground.

"The location of Sparrow's tracker has areas of large lava deposits. The heat is messing with our scanners so there could be more survivors." Snake Eyes' heart lept a little. Could it be possible? If some of them survived, could Cyberdoll be alive too? That built his determination. "It's a perfect place to hide a base," Hawk continued, bringing Snake Eyes out of his thoughts. "Dangerous but the heat from the lava could hide any form of construction but we think we found the entrance." He pulled up overhead pictures of trucks around a base of a volcano. It looked like they were stuck there but then another picture popped up and they could see one truck was going inside the volcano from the base.

"This is the only evidence we have of an above ground entrance. We're sending you in blind but we cannot waste any more time." Looking at all of them they all nodded in confirmation. Cobra had taken the lives of comrades, it was time for payback.

"When do we set out?" Duke asked, very stoic and stern.

"As soon as you suit up. Everyone dismissed."

"Yes Sir!" Everyone gave a tight salute before rushing out of the room to get ready.

* * *

Within the next hour the team was aboard a hovercraft heading to the destination in Indonesia. No one dared speak in the little carrier as they drew closer and closer. It was eerie not to hear some talk coming from them but after today no one felt like talking to each other, especially Snake Eyes.

He sat away from most of the group, sitting in a seat in the far corner, wallowing in his own thoughts. Between his cold heart and burning skin he couldn't tell where he sat with his emotions yet. All he knew was that he wanted revenge. He tried to make the ugly emotion go away but no matter how hard he tried, it wouldn't. So instead he let it breath, let it feed from his anger and sorrow. Cobra would now learn what true hell would be like.

"Drop off in 5," the pilot called out from the speaker causing everyone to jump. Glancing at each other, they stood and gathered the supplies they needed.

The air pressure in the cabin began to lessen meaning that the craft was descending. They gathered at the large hatch in the back and waited for a few minutes before they heard the gears start to move.

As the hatch lowered, it was nighttime outside. For safety reasons, they were somewhat far off from the island they were to infiltrate. The hovercraft they were on was undetectable to most scans but one could not be too careful so it was decided that they would swim to the island. Tonight there was no moon, perfect for infiltration, and with only the stars as a guide, they could see the large outline of the volcano.

Without giving an indication, Snake Eyes jumped first into the churning, murky water. The cold bit at his skin at the initial contact and even as he began to swim his own body wasn't heating it so he had to ignore it and continue to swim onward as he heard everyone else jump in behind him.

What felt like hours, they finally were able to pull themselves onto themselves onto the islands beach. Without a rest, they dashed forward until they had cover under the dark canopy of trees.

"Got to hand it to the technical guys," Heavy Duty said as they gathered around and he pulled a large pack off his back. "They know how to at least keep weapons dry." Unlatching the front he opened it to reveal two heavy duty rifles with ammo. Scarlett, Ripcord, and Duke had similar packs that carried less heavy rifles and ammo with small hand guns. Breaker also had a pack but his was mostly full of electronic eupplies and two hand guns. Snake Eyes hadn't bothered, since he usually carried his weapons on his body anyway, except for a small pack that held his own hand guns.

Once everyone had strapped on their weapons, Duke spoke, "Everyone knows what to do?" Receiving an affirmative nod, he turned himself to Snake Eyes.

"Sna-" he cut himself short once he saw the ninja was already gone. "Damn. I don't think I'll ever get used to that." He received a sympathetic pat from Scarlett.

"You just let him do his part, and we'll do ours." Nodding, Duke added,

"Alright, everyone put on your goggles. We're heading out."

Everyone quickly put on their night vision goggles before following behind Duke.

* * *

Running from tree to tree, Snake Eyes became one with the shadows again. The world beyond what he was doing no longer existed, all that mattered was here and now, and his revenge.

While the others were to find a way inside the base, his mission was to find and remove any Cobra threats. Most likely everything would be guarding the main entrance, so he was heading that way before everyone else did.

Coming to stop behind one tree, he peeked out behind it, using his night vision visor to see the clearing that they had seen in the pictures. Nothing was there, except deep depressions that could have been tracks. He waited for a bit, just to see if patrols would come by. When nothing happened he slowly moved closer, weary of any traps.

Coming to the edge of the clearing we stopped, still remaining hidden, and looked around again. Nothing. Snake Eyes thought it was odd; either Cobra was getting lax in their security or they were going through some serious budget cuts.

Smirking at his own little joke, he moved through the trees around the clearing, checking for any form of traps. Finding none he thought about stepping into the center yet didn't as he looked at the rock face. He studied it carefully; tall and imposing it looked like any rock wall yet years of his training had always taught him to never take things at face value. And that's when he saw it.

Far above the ground there were some rock formations that looked apart of the landscape. Yet even with no moonlight, his trained eyes picked up on what could be a small hole on a couple of them.

_'A camera?' _he thought. He heard rustling behind him and he spun around ready to attack just as Duke came up next to him followed by everyone else.

"Seen anything yet?" Duke whispered, pulling up his goggles. Snake Eyes nodded and pointed to the rocks he saw. Duke scooted closer to him, replacing his goggles over his face and looked. He was quiet and even leaned in closer to the clearing with a tilt of his head. He then pulled back, lifting his goggles up again. "I see it. Breaker, there might be some cameras around, think you can handle it?"

"I thought you were going to give me something difficult," Breaker grumbled playfully as removed hid bag from his back and rummaged around before pulling out a square mechanical device with a screen and various buttons. Flipping it on, the thing gave a small whirling sound before Breaker began typing rapidly.

For a few minutes they sat in silence before Breaker turned the machine off with a victorious smile. "There were three other hidden cameras but I was able to shut them off. I also was able to shut the other security measures that were protecting the entrance. We better hurry though, I doubt it will take them long for them to notice the black outs."

"Right," Duke said taking command. "Heavy Duty, Ripcord, Snake Eyes, take the position on the left side of the entrance; stay close to the cliff wall. The rest will come with me."

With affirmative nods the team split with one half following Duke's orders and the rest following their leader to stand at the right of the entrance. With guns ready, they waited in a tense silence, ready for anything to happen. They didn't have to wait long as they heard the sounds of heavy gears moving. Slowly the doors began to open but stopped when it was just wide enough for a person to walk through. Two Cobra soldiers emerged from the structure with both their guns drawn and ready. They walked past the team, completely ignoring the shadows, and came to a stop in the open moonlight looking back and forth.

"I don't see anything…," one said.

"Go check the woods," the other ordered.

With a little hesitation the other followed the order, leaving behind his comrade, giving Snake Eyes the opening he needed. Leaving his spot, he moved silently across the sand to the one nearest to him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Scarlett following him, using the techniques he had taught her to follow just as silent. Moving to the side he indicated silently to kill the on in front of them and he would take the second.

Nodding, she crept past and brought out a gun with a silencer. Coming up behind the first one she brought her gun an inch from the base of his skull and without a second thought pulled the trigger. Before even the body fell to the ground Snake Eyes ran past them drawing his katana. With his right hand he reached out to cover the second's mouth and bring him back as he shoved his sword through the body where Snake Eyes estimated the heart to be. For a moment he was still until he felt the body go limp and he let it fall in a pile at his feet. His katana slid free of the body and he placed it back in its sheath as he turned to face the rest of the team.

Scarlett and Ripcord were moving the one body to the woods while the others were at the door keeping look out. Taking Ripcord's and Scarlett's idea, he grabbed the body in front of him by the waist and hauled it over his shoulder in a fireman hold. He followed the two and dumped the load with the other body before joining the rest.

Once back with the rest of the team, Duke quietly led them inside. They stuck to the shadows along the wall as people and machinery moved about with a clue.  
"Breaker, close the doors and turn the security back on. We don't want to raise suspicions," Duke whispered.

Breaker nodded and followed the orders. Everyone gathered behind stacked wooden boxes with Heavy Duty keeping look out at one end and Ripcord looking out the other.

"Duke, I don't think we'll be able to stick together," Heavy Duty whispered still keeping an eye out. "Too many Cobra-idiots walking about."

"You suggesting we split?"

"It would be for the best," Ripcord agreed. "Big man's right. There are just too many bodies out for us to stick together."

"Alright. Breaker when you into Cobra's security did you-"

"Download the map of the base? Please Boss, give me some credit." Pressing a few buttons on his wrist device, a small scale, 3D model of the entire base was pulled up. "From the information I've gathered the main console room is here." He pointed near the bottom of the map where a round room was. "But there has been extra security added to this room." Going up he pointed to a smaller round room in the middle of the complex.

"You think there keeping prisoners there?" Scarlett asked.

"Maybe. I don't want to hack into the system though, in case I set of any sensors."

"It's settled then. Heavy Duty, Breaker, and I will head to the control room and gather whatever information we can about this operation. Scarlett, you and Ripcord go to the room and see if there are any survivors. Snake Eyes."

The ninja nodded an affirmative to show he was listening.

"I want you to explore this base to make sure nothing is too out of the ordinary. If Cobra is already making whatever it is, Joe needs to know about it."

With the assignments handed out the team was about to separate when Breaker grabbed Duke by the arm.

"Wait a minute!" he hissed. "I have more news."

Duke nodded for him to continue.

"Besides the entrance there here, there is only one other way to escape…." He pointed to the top of the facility.

"You've got to be kidding me…," Ripcord grumbled.

"This area seems to be a landing and loading zone for aircrafts," Breaker added ignoring Ripcord's comment.

"…We'll try to meet back up in this area but _if _we do get caught, we'll use that area as an escape plan," Duke finally said. "Now let's get going."

Being alone, Snake Eyes took off first, sticking along the wall. Ripcord and Scarlett followed behind, though much slower since Ripcord had no formal ninja training. Breaker, Heavy Duty, and Duke went in the opposite direction where the other entrance was and the quickest way to the control room.

Snake Eyes arrived at the other door and waited until Scarlett and Ripcord had caught up to him. He didn't have to wait long and as they arrived the doors opened letting some Cobra members through. Quickly the three of them slipped through the door and stealthily walked down the metal halls and stairwells, carefully dodging other Cobra members by either jumping into conjoining halls or staying hidden next to the walls as the enemy passed.

Finally, at one point, the trio stopped at a split in the hallway. "We have to go this way," Scarlett whispered pointing to the left after checking the map that Breaker had sent her. Snake Eyes nodded and pointed to the right. "Alright," Scarlett said. "But be careful, ok?"

With a curt nod the ninja left them while Ripcord and Scarlett went to fill out their own mission.

"Hey," Ripcord whispered at one point as they stopped to hide from the enemy. Scarlett didn't answer him at first until the Cobra's had passed and she turned her head to indicate she had his attention. "Do you think Snake Eyes will be alright? I mean… with you know…."

"Now is not the time to talk about that, Ripcord," Scarlett said seriously. But she leaned into him and gave him a quick peak on the lips adding, "But it's nice to know you worry and to answer your question, I don't know. All we can do is be there for him. Now come on we're almost there." Without another word he followed, his mind focusing back on the mission.

A little while later the duo arrived at their destination. They had to be more careful now since the metal door was in the middle of the hall and they were now left open and vulnerable. "Where's Breaker when you need him?" Ripcord grumbled jokingly, playing look out. Scarlet chose to ignore him as she went to work on the security scanner. Luck was on their side however as no one came down the hall and, though it took longer, Scarlett was able to crack the scanner combination.

"We're in," she said standing up.

Taking both sides of the door with guns ready, they made brief eye contact before nodding to each other. With that they stepped forward, letting the automatic doors slid open. Stepping inside the room was lit by a variety of lights bouncing off the metal making everything look shite. On either side of the room were tables with a variety of medical instruments hanging around it by mechanical arms. Both had a control console but neither of them paid attention to them right that moment, instead focused in the center where a circle of tables were. All of them were empty except for one. "Cyberdoll!" Ripcord yelled with Scarlett and him running towards her, letting the doors close.

"Ripcord? Ripcord is that you?" The two of them stood on either side of the bed she was on and peered down at her.

"Jesus! You look like you've gone through hell and back!" Ripcord said, taking in the bruised side of her face. It was slightly swollen and turning a nice color of purple. "Bet that had to hurt."

Cyberdoll let out a chocked sob as she attempted a smile. Scarlett meanwhile had released her feet and hands. She finally released the technicians head and letting a smile cross her face as she slowly helped the technician up. Reaching out, Cyberdoll wrapped her arms around both of them and brought them close as a few tears escaped from her eyes.

"Thank God! Oh, thank God!" she sobbed. "I thought I would never see you guys again!"

"Not gonna happen," Ripcord said pulling back while Scarlett still held onto the crying technician, hiding her own face from him. When she did pull back, she quickly wiped moisture from her eyes before getting down to business.

"Are there any other survivors?" she asked.

"There… there was s-someone else…. Sparrow…," Cyberdoll responded trying to calm down. "The-they took him somewhere… over there." She pointed to the other side of the room where a solid metal door was. Ripcord and Scarlett made brief eye contact and Ripcord nodded at the message she sent him.

Leaving to two check on the other side of the door, Scarlett gently grabbed Cyberdoll by the shoulders to focus the woman's attention on her. "Cyberdoll, do you have any idea why they brought you here?"

"It… it was something about wanting codes…. They wanted Breaker for some security codes for the G.I. Joe mainframe."

"Anything else?"

"N-no. That's all I got to hear."

Just then Ripcord came back looking very grim and pale. Cyberdoll looked at him daring to ask the question but when he shook his head she had to hold back another sob. "Did… did he suffer a lot?" she quietly asked, afraid to know as she recalled his screams. Ripcord didn't respond at first but slowly said,

"I won't lie. It looked bad, really bad. But it looked like though they… tortured him a lot he had a quick death." He didn't say how Sparrow died but neither woman wanted to know. They sat there, all quiet and solemn, before Ripcord smiled like a Cheshire cat.

I'll let everyone know you're safe. Snakes Eyes is gonna flip man."

Cyberdoll didn't understand what he was talking about but her attention was turned back to Scarlett as they tried to make sure she could walk and deal with Cyberdoll's lack of eyesight.

* * *

Elsewhere, a few miles above Ripcord, Cyberdoll, and Scarlett's heads, Snake Eyes watched from the ceiling as a couple of Cobra members walked only a few feet from him. He had heard them coming from the other side of the door he wanted to go through but with no real hiding spots he was only able to have enough time to jump and grab the pipes above him and remain perfectly still until they passed.

Luckily no one noticed him and he was able to slip down and go through the door before he was caught. The room was larger and much hotter than the other places he had been and glancing over the edge of the railing he was able to see, miles below him, a faint glow indicating why. Above him was closed off, blocking out any light except for the fluorescent lights that lined the blackened rocky interior vent of the volcano, with an enormous hydraulic system attached to the platform. Using the camera in his visor, he snapped photos of that before looking around the walls were enclaves with either flying crafts or various tanks and other hard core weaponry. Round cylinder like objects, which were connected together with numerous pipes that leaked out steam, were located on various positions on the wall and even bigger ones located near the bottom of the shaft. All of it was connected by various crosswalks that lined the walls or crisscrossed over the lava pit, like the one he was on. Taking photos of everything around him he was about to move on when Ripcord's voice cut through his communication device.

"Ripcord calling in. Can anyone hear me?"

Mentally cursing his team member, Snake Eyes hid further into the shadows as best he could in his position and typed back an affirmative. _'I hope this is important…,' _he thought remembering Ripcord's penchant to sometimes use the comm. system for idle chit-chat.

"Affirmative Rip," Snake Eyes heard Duke say.

"Great news Duke. We found a survivor!"

"Sparrow?"

"…Negative," Ripcord said a little more solemn. "Unfortunately he was killed…."

"Then who is it?" Duke asked.

"Well, you're not going to believe it, but it's Cyberdoll!"

Snake Eyes felt his heart stop for a few seconds, almost not believing what he heard, before picking back up again faster than normal. _'She's… alive…? She's alive? She's alive!' _Without hesitation he typed a message to Ripcord, asking about her condition.

"She's fine," Ripcord laughed. "She's a little battered but is able to move everything fine.

Part of Snake Eyes was filled with relief at his words; the other half of him was filled with a blood rage. How dare Cobra hurt _his _woman! Well who he hoped to be his woman soon. His entire being wanted to abandon his mission now to be with Cyberdoll but he knew better and stayed where he was. The sooner this mission was over, the better.

"That's great news," Duke's voice cut through Snake Eyes thoughts. "Ripcord, listen, I need you three to stay in whatever room you're in right now. Heavy Duty, Breaker, and I will meet you there. Snake Eyes I need you to look at the other exit. Unfortunately there's no way to avoid being caught."

"Does this mean I get to drive an airplane?" Ripcord asked, sounding like a child on Christmas.

"…Yes, Rip."

Snake Eyes tuned out Ripcord's yell of happiness as he began to focus on his added task. What he needed to do was get above the closed off area to see if it was a landing platform. Then he needed to see about getting a craft for when they needed to make a quick escape.

He was about to rush across the crosswalk to see if he could find an entrance to the above area when he heard footsteps below him that he knew all too well. Peeking his head out to look below, he watched as someone dressed in all white ninja regalia step out five crosswalks below his position. _'Storm Shadow….'_

Quickly he pulled his head back, mindful of their training they both had received at being able to detect enemies watching them. He stayed completely still, hearing these footsteps stop for a few seconds before continuing on but with a little kick to them. Snake Eyes knew he had been caught and, not wanting to face his former brother-in-arms at the moment, took off stealthily to the other side of the room.

He decided to forego taking the corridors and go up quickly by scaling the walls. Grabbing onto the soot covered rocks he carefully started climbing, mindful of where he stopped and gripped. What felt like hours later, but in all actuality was in fact a few minutes, he was able to reach the topmost crosswalk that he remembered led above ground. Gaining solid footing he turned to go through the doors when suddenly they opened and he heard whizzing sound coming towards him.

Instinctually he acted, immediately bending backwards in a flip. He was able to catch the shininess of six throwing stars that passed over him before we was able to stand straight again to meet his enemy. "Hello brother," Storm Shadow said, meeting his gaze. "Still sharp as ever I see."

Snake Eyes made no gesture to acknowledge the comment but tensed his body, ready for anything to happen. "It's been awhile," Storm Shadow continued as he slowly withdrew the katana from his back. "We never got to finish out battle last time." Then with that, and without warning, he sprung.

Snake Eyes had just enough time to pull out his own two katana and par the blow. He silently prayed for the others to be ok, especially Cyberdoll, as he began to fight for his life.

* * *

"Are you sure this is the only way?" Duke asked again with a hint of desperation in his voice. Out of all the plans, this one seemed to be the stupidest of them all. It put everyone in unnecessary danger but at this point they were out of options.

"I'm telling you Duke, we don't have time to crack Cobra's security and the only way around that is to connect directly to the mainframe through the main computer," Breaker answered, also not liking the plan but seeing no other choice.

"Well if you ladies are ready then…." Heavy Duty didn't bother to finish his sentence as he withdrew from behind his back two flash grenades. He looked over at Duke expectantly and Duke gave a firm, though reluctant, nod to start the mission.

Stepping away from the two, Heavy Duty slipped on his goggles, switching them to be able to handle the bright flash and stood at the entrance of the main console room. He waited until Duke and Breaker did the same before pulling the pins from the grenades and stepping forward.

The doors slid open and Heavy Duty tossed both grenades inside and stepped back to let the doors close again. Two loud bangs followed by various screams of shock and pain. Unlocking his two rifles off of safety and stormed back into the room, guns blazing. The flash grenades were still lit but with the goggles he was able to see the Cobra members and started methodically shooting them with the precision to kill. For those he missed he heard Duke following in after him, shooting the enemies in sight. Above the sound of gun shots, an alarm went off indicating to the rest of the base of G.I. Joe infiltration.

When the flash grenades had burned out and all of the enemies lay on the floor, Duke flipped his goggles up and turned back to the door. "Breaker! Get in here!"

Scampering insdie, Breaker wasted no time in going over to one of the consoles and plugged in a USB before starting to rapidly type on the keyboard. "How much time do you need to download those files?" Duke asked as he and Heavy Duty replenished their weapons and keeping an eye on the door.

"Just a few more seconds-" Breaker was cut off as the doors slid open and with just a glance to see it was the enemy, Heavy Duty opened fired, killing anyone that tried to get inside.

"You better hurry it up mate," Heavy Duty said. "Before they send in the reinforcements."

Breaker didn't respond but after a few more seconds he stopped typing and pulled out the flash drive. "I got it!"

Not saying a word, the three ran out of the room, stepping over the dead, bleeding bodies, with Duke at the head, Breaker in the middle, and Heavy Duty bringing up the rear. Using the tracking system to find Ripcord and Scarlett's location, they ran through halls and upstairs, encountering enemies here and there that ended in more dead bodies. Luckily none of the three ended up seriously injured in a fight though Duke ended up having two bullets graze him in the leg and Heavy Duty had a close call when Cobra had been able to sneak up behind them.

Finally reaching the middle level they made their way to where Ripcord, Scarlett, and Cyberdoll were. "Duke here, can you hear me Ripcord?" Duke asked as they approached the door to where they were at.

"Man it's good to hear from you guys! What the hell did you do to set off the alarms?"

"No time to explain but we're approaching you're location so don't shoot."

"Roger that."

Coming to the door, the three of them stepped inside. The first sight they saw was a handful of bodies on the ground, the second was when they looked to one side of the room they saw Ripcord, Scarlett, and Cyberdoll coming up from behind a bullet ridden console.

"Glad to see you mates are ok," Heavy Duty said as everyone got together.

"Safe but not unshaken," Scarlett said. Her eyes traveled to Cyberdoll, who was holding Scarlett's reserve gun. Her head was held high and her lips in a tight defiant line but looking at the hand with the gun one could see it shaking.

"You ok?" Breaker asked

"I'm f-fine," she quietly lied, her voice breaking at the end. "I just don't know how you guys do it…."

"Just hold on for a bit longer, ok?" Duke said, trying to be reassuring. "We're getting out of here soon."

Cyberdoll gave the barest of nods as she tried to remain calm and collected. They talked for a few more seconds about a tactical plan before Duke and Ripcord led the envoy out of the room and Heavy Duty once again bringing up the rear. Breaker was in the center, following Scarlett and Cyberdoll with Scarlett leading Cyberdoll by the hand because of the technician's bad eyes.

As they started traveling farther up a sudden new type of alarm sounded causing them to stop. "Attention personnel, plan X-89 has now been enacted. Base will self-destruct in 60 minutes. Make your way to the nearest escape pod. Repeat…."

"Guess they don't want to risk the base now that it's been compromised," Heavy Duty said as everyone looked at each other with subtle panic.

"We better not wait then," Duke said. "Let's move!"

Picking up the pace, they continued running forward. They rarely met any more of Cobra after that but the few they did meet were swiftly dealt with. All the while Cyberdoll focused her attention ahead trying to ignore the stench of blood assaulting her. As a noncombatant, she was never supposed to meet this side of G.I. Joe operations, but here she was fighting for her life and completely scared shitless. She tried not to show it but her while body was shaking so it was hard to miss.

Passing through a sealed door that lead into a large circular room the group got a sudden surprise when a hail of bullets came from below and to the left of them. Cyberdoll might have screamed, she wasn't sure, as the group pulled back to the safety of the hallway. "Duke! Ripcord! Are you ok?" Scarlett asked noticing Ripcord's limp and Duke grabbing his shoulder.

"Fine," Ripcord gasped. "Bastards got me in the thigh."

"I'll live," Duke said removing his hand. His hand was covered in a shiny substance against his black glove.

"Joes!" a scratchy voice called to them. Indicating to Heavy Duty to watch their back, Duke moved to the left side of the door frame and peeked out. "Ah Duke," Cobra Commander said sickeningly sweet. "Good to see you again."

"Can't say I can say the same!" Duke shouted back. Cobra Commander was about to shout something back when the automated voice cut in.

"Attention personnel, base will self-destruct in 30 minutes. Please proceed to the nearest escape pod. Repeat…."

"It seems we have no time to talk Duke, so I'll make my demand sweet and to the point. Give me Breaker and I'll let the rest of the team go."

"Over my dead body!" Duke replied back.

"Then enjoy your graves here."

Cursing, Duke looked over at Breaker. "Have you gotten in contact with Snake Eyes yet?"

"I've tried but he's not responding."

While everyone else was trying to discuss a plan, Cyberdoll remained absolutely quiet, watching everyone. She couldn't exactly offer any input for the situation and if she could, she wouldn't know what to offer to get out of this mess. Her mind was frantic trying to scrape together some sort of thought in this madness and calm her fear. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on her breathing to calm herself. It was a technique Snake Eyes had taught her in the months they had grown closer.

Her heart clenched tightly at the thought of him. While she had been held captive all she could think about was him. What was he going through? Was he even ok? And now he was missing!

_'Please,' _she thought clenching her jaw tightly. _'Please be safe.'_

Going deeper into herself she tried to reach an area of inner peace but wasn't very successful. Mentally cursing, she tried again when she heard a sound. At first she didn't know where it came from so she concentrated harder. It took her a moment to hear it above the noise of various machines but she heard the distinctive sound of metal against metal, like she had heard on those rare occasions she had seen Joes train with swords.

Opening her eyes, she moved toward the door a little and looked up squinting. It was a futile attempted to actually see anything but she was hoping for a flash of something to point out she wasn't going crazy.

"Cyberdoll, what are you doing?" Breaker asked making everyone focus on her.

"I think I hear something up there…."

Coming to stand next to her, Breaker lowered his goggles and looked above. He sucked in a sharp breath before quickly removing his goggles and looking at Duke. "Snake Eyes and Shadow Storm are fighting above us!"

"Are you serious?" Ripcord said.

"See for yourself," Breaker moved back and Duke came up looking through his goggles. It took him a moment but spotting a flash of white he was able to find the two of them weaving back and forth between the hydraulic system, performing moves that he only dreamed of doing. Snake Eyes looked completely fine for the most part, minus the few long, non-life threatening gashes on his arm and chest. Shadow Storm looked nearly the same as well, showing how close the two were in skill.

Removing his goggles Duke looked at his team. "Looks like we're on our own for now…."

"Fine with me," Heavy Duty said. "While you were looking on how Snake Eyes was doing, I took a look at the Cobra Commander's position. There are two firing squads, both on top of the other. The top squad is where Cobra Commander is and it looks like it wasn't meant to be a permanent structure."

"What do you mean?" Duke asked.

"I mean it looks like one of those suspended platforms. If we shoot at the wires that are holding it up, it should collapse on top of the other one, giving us time to escape."

"Sounds like a plan," Duke said. "Alright here's what we'll do…."

* * *

Up above, Snake Eyes pared another blow aimed at his head. Turning his body sideways, he rounded about one of the pipes, using the momentum to push his lower body forward, connecting it to Storm Shadow's side and pushing the other ninja away to create space. Finding his footing on the machinery he watched Shadow Storm fall a couple of feet into a pit of wires and cursing as he struggled to get loose.

It gave Snake Eyes time to look down below and look for the location of his team. They were easy to spot with the only door open. He could see various types of movement and at one point he thought he saw a flash of long brown hair. _'She's alive…,' _he thought with his heart beating faster. He hadn't truly believed Ripcord's words but that little glimpse, was now what he had to hold onto until he could fully see her.

He moved forward to help but suddenly jerked back when he heard a sudden whirling sound. Three throwing stars embedded themselves into a rubber tube, coming only inches from his head. Turning his head quickly he saw Storm Shadow standing beside the hole he was in. "Your fight is with me Snake Eyes," he said shifting his stance to attack.

_'And I really don't have time for you,' _he thought thinking about his team and the short amount of time they had to escape. Lunging forward he hoped to catch Storm Shadow off guard but the other ninja block his blow. As both tried to gain control a sudden sound of bullets and a surprised screams came from below them. Not taking any chances with his team, Snake Eyes backed off and moved to create space between the two of them while looking below.

On one side of the wall, a ramp had fallen down to one side, crushing the people beneath it. He saw a line of black masses going across the ramp in the center but was quickly stopped by a hail of bullets. Some of his team fired back but those in the center possibly see Cyberdoll and Breaker were sticking close together. Taking on enemy fire they continued on but were constantly halted by the hail of bullets.

"15 minutes until self-destruction," the automated voice called off. "Repeat, 15 minutes until self-destruction."

_'I. Do. Not .Have. Time. For. This!" _Snake Eyes thought as he dodged another round of throwing stars. Quickly he drew forth some daggers from his belt and threw them effortlessly at the other ninja. At the same time Storm Shadow had pulled out a gun and fired it at him. The sound of knife piercing flesh could be heard, followed by a scream of pain as Snake Eyes easily dodged the incoming bullets. Snake Eyes was about to lunge at his opponent had he not been suddenly distracted by the sound of a woman in pain.

He snapped his head down below, his heart nearly stopping at the sight. A group of Cobra had come from behind, taking the team by surprise. Heavy Duty was firing back, pinning them down but the bullets that the enemy had shot off had done there damage. Breaker had seemed to taken one in the shoulder but he was busy leaning over Cyberdoll who was gripping her left knee to stop the flow of blood.

He was suddenly pulled from the sight before him when he felt a jarring pain on his right said. Instinctively, he reared back and punched Storm Shadow in the face, knocking off the ninja's balance and pulling the knife out at the same time. Cursing his momentary lapse, he tried to think of a quick exit strategy and get to his team below as he and Storm Shadow engaged in fighting again. The only option he could think of was very dangerous but at this point he didn't really care anymore, all he wanted to do was get to his team, most importantly, to Cyberdoll. First though he had to push Storm Shadow back enough for him to escape.

Blades clashed for a few seconds before Snake Eyes finally had the opening he needed. Below him was a big enough opening for him to slip through and be able to fall with no interruptions. With a violent shove, he pushed Storm Shadow back enough and, with one final look at the ninja, unhooked his feet from their stable holds and fell through the opening feet first.

The hot air bit at his skin as he continued to fall. He aimed his body to land on one of the center ramps closet to the top. He hit it dead on with his feet meeting the railing where he pushed off to fall to the next railing. He did that three more times before falling into the fray with his team, landing in front of Duke with a hard thud.

A bullet whizzed past his head but he ignored it as Duke yelled, "Jesus Snake Eyes! I'm glad to see you!"

With a nod he ran past Duke to where Cyberdoll lay, who was firing her gun from her lying position on her back at the door while Heavy Duty was ducking the shots to reload. The shots weren't really that good but were keeping the enemy at bay.

"Nice to see you, Snakes!" Heavy Duty yelled as he started firing at the door again while Breaker gave Snake Eyes a nod as he fired at the enemy from the side. Abruptly, Cyberdoll stopped and snapped her head to him, her heart picking up in pace and not just from the adrenaline.

"Snake Eyes?" she whispered with joy at seeing him again. Snake Eyes gave her a small nod before, without warning, he picked her up bridal style.

He heard her give a little squeak and under different circumstances he would have found it endearing. At the moment though, it wasn't time to think romantic thoughts. When he had a well enough grip on her, he turned to the other door and rushed forward. Without the heavy weaponry, he was able to move quicker and get past the bullets with only minor grazes.

He found shelter in the door covering, since the door didn't open like it was supposed to. Snake Eyes could only assume it was somehow jammed as he used his body to protect Cyberdoll from any stray bullets. After his swift actions, it seemed everyone else was able to move and soon everyone gathered around the door.

"Fuck!" Ripcord yelled as he shot off a round of bullets. "Why does nothing ever go our way?"

"Just shut up and keep firing!" Heavy Duty shouted back as Breaker started working the door. Much to Snake Eyes chagrin Cyberdoll attempted to move over to Breaker to help but only let out a whimper as she tried to move her wounded knee. Snake Eyes glanced at the wound and nearly winced; the knee was completely blown out and bleeding profusely. _'Damn it!'_

Seconds later, Breaker had the door open and with no enemies in sight, Snake Eyes didn't wait another second as he scooped Cyberdoll in his arms again, causing her to yelp in pain as her knee was jostled, and took off running. The others followed close behind, keeping an eye out for any enemies, which thankfully seemed to all have disappeared.

"5 minutes to self-destruction," the voice called over the intercoms as they neared the top, followed by an earth shaking rumble to prove the point.

Team Alpha ignored the voice as they burst through the doors of the hanger, finding the rest of Cobra running and scrambling about to get into the hovercrafts, ignoring the new members to the room. Heavy Duty reloaded his gun before smirking, "Let's go!"

He charged forward, firing his weapon off as he was flanked by the others. Mass chaos ensued amongst the Cobra troops who were caught off guard by the attack. Many tried to scramble away, many fell either dying or wounded, and others tried to fight back in vain.

"Ripcord!" Duke yelled. "Follow me!"

Immediately, the two rushed off to the side, over to one of the stilled hovercrafts. Scarlett followed with Snake Eyes and Breaker as Heavy Duty continued firing his weapon.

Ripcord and Duke immediately took out the men around the hovercraft by either shooting or bashing them with their guns. They easily got inside, continuing their slaughter before reaching the cockpit and finishing off the pilots. "Come on!" Duke yelled to the others, dragging one of the bodies out.

Ignoring the blood spattered windshield, Ripcord hopped into the pilot's seat and started up the engines. Duke, Breaker, and Scarlett quickly rid of the extra bodies as Snake Eyes laid Cyberdoll on the floor in the back. With her eyes closed, she couldn't see the blood starting to pull at her bottom half and her breathing started becoming shallow. To offer some comfort Snake Eyes cupped her cheek gently causing her to open her eyes.

"Snake Eyes…."

Her voice came out in a whisper but Snake Eyes couldn't respond as he felt someone grab his shoulder. He turned his head to see Scarlett looking down at him with concerned eyes. "She needs medical attention. Let me attend to her while you help the others."

Snake Eyes nodded in agreement but was reluctant to leave Cyberdoll's side. It wasn't until Scarlett took his place that he finally did and returned to battle.

The bodies gone, Duke and Heavy Duty were firing off shots from the boarding entrance while it seemed Breaker had taken the other seat in the cockpit. The engine roared loudly mixing with the now constant rumbling from the volcano.

"Ripcord! We need to move _now_!" Duke yelled

"I'm working on it!" Suddenly a pinging sound started coming from outside. "Shit! There using the other hovercrafts to fire at us!"

Not needing to be told what to do, Snake Eyes immediately jumped onto the gunnery controls panel. He knew the basics of how to use the hovercraft guns; it was similar to the Joes, so when the scope came down he didn't hesitate to grab the console and started firing back. Looking through the scope he watched the enemies fall and continued to fire even as the craft lurched forward.

"Come on baby, I know you can go faster." Snake Eyes heard Ripcord say. Ignoring the pilot, Snake Eyes continued his mission even as the mechanical voice returned; now reverberating in the hall.

"1 minute to self-destruction."

Duke and Heavy Duty withdrew further into the craft as the door finally closed, Duke immediately went over to the cockpit while Heavy Duty drew back to help Scarlett.

Snake Eyes watched as the structure shook and rattled, bringing down rocks and beams as the hovercraft started picking up speed.

The craft started moving upward, still increasing in its speed, until the rock wall disappeared and the suddenly endless ocean was all Snake Eyes could see. "Hold on!" Ripcord yelled.

Immediately there was sudden shift in the craft as they shot off toward somewhere. Not long after there was a sudden explosion from the volcano as it erupted. "Ripcord! Careful!" Scarlett yelled.

Not bothering to hear what the pilot has to say, Snake Eyes closed down the gunnery station after making sure no more enemies were in sight. Instantly he moved to the back having to see if Cyberdoll was going to be ok."

Scarlett was crowded over her knee, diligently working a pair of tweezers into the wound as she tried to mop up the extra blood. Heavy Duty had removed his armor and shirt which was now clamped in between Cyberdoll's teeth. Tears were pouring down the poor woman's face as she tried not to move but she couldn't stop her constant twitching.

Seeing Snake Eyes, Heavy Duty moved from his position near Cyberdoll's head to allow the ninja to kneel down next to her. "A couple of bullets are stuck in her knee," Heavy Duty explained watching as the ninja used both hand to cup her face to focus her attention on him. "Scarlett removed one of them but she has to get the other before doing anything else."

Snake Eyes nodded in understanding but his heart wretched as Cyberdoll looked at him with huge watery eyes.

"Heavy Duty," Scarlett said. "Help me. I need you to hold Cyberdoll's legs down."

Nodding, weapon specialist moved down, leaving Snake Eyes to comfort the woman he loved. _'Focus on me,'_ he thought calmly, wanting to project his thoughts to her. _'Just focus on me and everything will be fine.'_

He almost didn't hear Scarlett's mutter of 'sorry' before Cyberdoll screamed out in pain, back arching, clenching her jaw, more tears flowing, and hands flying up to grasp something, which just happened to be his arms. Snake Eyes hid her face in the juncture of his neck, trying to offer as much comfort as he could.

They stayed that way for a couple of seconds until he slowly felt her lessen her grip on him, hands sliding off. Pulling back with concern, he saw her eyes closed, completely sill and a new sort of panic set in. Were they too late?

He looked down at her chest; the constricting pain in his chest lightened as he saw it was slowly rising and falling. He looked at Scarlett, catching her eyes as she pulled out the bullet. "She passed out from the pain?"

The ninja nodded.

"It's probably for the best," Scarlett sighed as she turned back to the medical kit by her side. "Thanks Heavy Duty."

"No problem," the man grunted, standing up to head to the front. Snake Eyes stayed still looking at Scarlett, asking silently to stay. Scarlett caught his gaze and nodded.

Grateful to his friend, he carefully placed Cyberdoll's head onto his lap, being a silent guardian until Scarlett had bandaged her knee. She told him Cyberdoll shouldn't be moved but when she walked away to attend to the other team members wounds, he gently grabbed the woman on the ground underneath her arms and dragged her up to rest her back against his chest and wrapped his arms around her, ignoring the knowing looks of his teammates.

Resting his head on top of hers, he didn't let go until they arrived back to base.

* * *

**I don't particular like this chapter because it's my first time writing fight scenes. Reviews and feedback would be nice for all the hard work I did!**

**And for those that are questioning Cyberdoll's sudden super hearing this is my logic: When someone loses on of their senses the others start picking up the slack. And then the ninja techniques just sort of enhanced that. So when she closed her eyes and concentrated hard enough she heard the sword fight. I believe my logic to be sound.**


	15. Chapter 15 and Epilogue

**OMG! PEOPLES! IT IS THE LAST CHAPTER! :DDD Can you believe it? Yes, after so many years it is finished!**

**I would like to thank everyone that has stuck to the story since the beginning and thank everyone for their lovely reviews. You all are so wonderful and I will love you and miss you all!**

**Also, on that note, I want to apologize for the last authors note in the beginning of the chapter of chapter 14. I know that seemed very rude of me but honestly that was meant to be funny but... it was like 1 in the morning when I typed it so I wasn't really thinking. (and no, no one brought this to my attention, when I was going back and reading it I just thought it seemed very rude and I wanted to apologize.)**

**Anyway! ONTO THE CHAPTER!**

* * *

**Chapter 15**

She was floating; that was the only way to describe the feeling Cyberdoll was having at moment. It was dark all around her and she was floating in the abyss.

It was nice though. There was no pain, no worries, just the wonderful existence of floating. She couldn't help but feel she was missing something important though. Sometimes she would feel something- someone?- touch her skin; her hands, face, and every-so-often she would feel loving strokes on her cheeks. Sometimes she even heard muddled voices coming out of the darkness she was entrapped in. Cyberdoll never could tell what they were saying and used to be unable to distinguish gender but lately she could tell if they were a man's or a woman's, though names still alluded her. She tried reaching out to the voices, tried responding to the touches, but as soon as they came they would disappear. It was frustrating, but then she would go back to her former state of nothingness.

She breathed, or at least she thought she did, and waited for something, _anything._

Suddenly, she felt something brush against her cheek and grasped around her right hand. Desperately her mind tried to grasp onto it, to let whatever- whoever- know that she was aware of them. But she could feel the lull of the darkness around her, attempting to draw her back in a state of unawareness.

She pushed it back, praying that whoever it was didn't let go, to be her anchor. The grip around her hand tightened so she figured they must have understood, almost like reading her thoughts. She wanted to yell or cry as she continued to fight, trying to find the door out of here.

Almost as if answering, there seemed to be a light in the distance. Desperately, Cyberdoll raced towards it, still using the grip on her hand as a guide. As she drew closer to the light, pictures filtered through her mind. Her years at G.I. Joe. The nightshift. The bombing. Duke, Ripcord, Rain, Scarlett, Heavy Duty, Breaker, Cover Girl, everyone. Then an image of a masked face passed through her mind.

_'Snake Eyes!' _her mind cried also remembering all the emotions that came with the name. The caring, the mixed emotions before… love; the love she felt for him.

It gave her energy to fight more until her fingers brushed against the light. Instantly it burst forward, blinding her. It felt like a hard punch to the face and the gut and, desperately, she tried to maintain consciousness but couldn't, slowly fading until she blacked out.

* * *

Cyberdoll groaned loudly. Every part of her body felt _so_ heavy. Why? She tried to rack her brain for the answer but even that hurt to do. She groaned again, more in frustration than pain, but in response there was a light touch to her cheek, a thumb gently stroking it.

She decided then to try and open her eyes to see who it was. It was easier said than done though because, like everything else, any sort of movement seemed to take a lot of energy. It took a moment but finally her eyelids obeyed as they slowly peeled open.

The world was really blurry and white at first, so she blinked slowly to try and clear it up. The whiteness went away a little and she could make out a few details but nothing really cleared making her realize that she didn't have her glasses on. She became aware of a steady beeping sound to her left that was gradually building to match her own rapid heartbeat. Where the hell was she? And why was she here?

It jolted her when the stroking on her cheek disappeared to be replaced by a firm grip on her chin that gently made her turn to who was standing next to her.

Without her glasses she couldn't tell who it was, though she could distinguish he was wearing all black and that he was a white male with blonde hair. It wasn't until whoever it was used their other hand to slip on her glasses for her that he finally became clear. Instantly she relaxed.

"S-Snake… Ey-Eyes..," Her voice didn't sound right to her, too raspy and too low.

The unmasked ninja smiled gently, bringing up a thumb to cover her lips, indicating for her not to talk. Reluctantly he withdrew his hands and hastily grabbed the pitcher of water next to him, resting on the bedside table, and a plastic cup. He poured a glass and returned to Cyberdoll's side. He couldn't contain his relief at being able to hold the cup to her lips and watch as she drank to wet her throat because it meant she was _alive. _He could have kissed her then but held back for now.

Once, Cyberdoll emptied the cup she felt immensely better. She felt some energy return and turned her head further to look at Snake Eyes. She smiled kindly, still confused on how she ended up in the G.I. Joe hospital wing. She recognized the whitewash metal walls of the Joe's ship from the bombing months back.

"H-Hey…," Her voice was still weak but better than it was.

Snake Eyes used his right hand to grip hers and gave it a squeeze in response.

Without letting go, he used his other hand to pull out a notebook and pen. He set it out of the table and wrote in a quick message before passing the pad of paper to her.

_"How are you feeling?" _

Cyberdoll paused, her smile dropping, as she tried to process the question and figure out why Snake Eyes didn't just sign the question. She figured he didn't want to strain her brain too hard to process it since she just woke up, not understanding that the real reason was that he just didn't want to let go of her hand to communicate.

"I'm fine, I think," she finally said truthfully. "I really can't feel anything though…." The last part was said with a hint of worry but Snake Eyes didn't really seem all that concerned.

He took his notebook back and wrote a quick message.

_"Not surprising. Doc made sure you were drugged enough not to feel pain when you woke up. You've been out for a couple of days."_

"Pain? Why would I be in pain?" Cyberdoll asked, eyebrows knitting together.

Now _that _did worry the ninja and he quickly wrote out, _"Did you not notice your leg?"_

"My leg?" Slowly turning her head she noticed for the first time her left leg, from the knee down, was elevated by a medical pillow. She slightly started to panic because she couldn't remember _at all _how she got ended up this way. "Wh-Wha-?"

She felt Snake eyes gently grab her chin and make her look at him again. There was a hard glint in his eyes that she had never seen before but had seen in the ore harden Joe members. His solider mode was on. Quickly he took back the notebook and wrote another message,

_"What do you remember?"_

"I-I-I do-don't know," she responded, her mind frantically trying to piece together what happened. The heart monitor began to beep faster.

Snake Eyes watched her try desperately to access her memories with seemingly no results. _'Her mind must have blocked it to help her cope,' _he realized and, though he hated it, she needed to remember because it was going to be better in the long run. So quickly, he reached out and snatched the glasses off of the technician and placed them on the table. He then proceeded to use his free hand, the one not holding Cyberdoll's hand, to cover her eyes. For comfort, he leaned his upper body over the bedside railing until his head rested against hers, giving off waves of calm. He took a loud, deep breath, getting a full whiff of the technician's wonderful scent that reminded him of the ocean and the sterile hospital air. It was to let her know where he was and to help her calm her mind. A more selfish reason thought was that he didn't want the nurses to come in just yet.

Being plunged into darkness nearly caused Cyberdoll to jump out of her skin. At first she was confused and a little afraid until she heard the ninja's breathing right next to her ear. Instantly, her heart rate picked up even more, for an entirely different reason this time, but then slowly began to even out once her body picked up on his calm aura, basking in his presence.

It was odd because she usually felt nervous with someone so close in her personal space but with Snake Eyes her mind and body were immediately at ease. He mind slowed, the panic ebbing away, and for a moment she thought she was going to fall asleep again until something clocked in her brain.

It was almost like opening a door because when she finally stopped racing, images flashed through her head. She tenses, watching them like some bad movie until the very end. Being kidnapped, the "interrogation," getting shot; everything.

Her throat closed tightly and she felt her bottom lip begin to tremble as it all came to an end. "O-Oh God...," she whispered.

She had _survived; _God knows how but she survived something she wasn't even trained to handle.

The hand over her eyes suddenly disappeared and her vision cleared as her glasses were replaced. Still recoiling, she looked over at Snake Eyes, his eyes full of sympathy and his grip on her hand tighter than ever.

She didn't know what to say or what to do. It was almost surreal and she closed her eyes just hoping it was some kind of bad dream. A choked sob escaped her lips and she felt Snake Eyes lean in more until their foreheads touched. She didn't question why he did it; she couldn't because her mind was too caught up in processing what had happened to her anyway. Usually the ninja was distant from any sort of bodily contact but at that moment it was what she needed. Needed his comfort like air.

Snake Eyes' heart clenched tightly watching the woman he loved try and cope with the things that had happened to her. She was trying to be strong and not cry but at the same time she looked so broken. It was moments like this that he cursed not being able to talk because words could do so much right now. Yet all he could do was off the comfort of his body.

The two of them stayed in that position for a long while. They basked in each other's presence finding comfort and strength to open her eyes, directly meeting Snake Eyes' own.

She was speechless at the myriad of emotions she saw. Sympathy, anger, a dash of sadness, and something even deeper she couldn't even name. His look was intense and perhaps it should have scared her but she found her pulse racing in excitement and nervousness. She wasn't sure what was happening as he moved his head even closer to hers. It wasn't until his lips brushed against hers that the spell broke and she gasped.

She hadn't meant to break whatever it was going on between the two of them, but the moment that sharp intake of air passed her lips Snake Eyes snapped his head back sharply. He let go of her hand and turned to where his back was facing her. She barely comprehended when he grabbed his mask until he started moving toward the door. "Snake Eyes!"

At her desperate cry, the man stopped, hand just above the door pad. He didn't turn to face her and she wasn't sure how to take it. She was confused by his actions, the small kiss still tingling her lips. Did this mean that he felt the same way as she did? That he cared or, dare she even say it, love her too?

She bit her bottom lip as she came to one simple conclusion; she had to take the risk. "Snake Eyes…."

The ninja took a deep breath before he slowly turned, keeping his face blank. Internally, though, he was cursing himself to hell and back' he hadn't meant to kiss her but he couldn't resist. He kept himself completely calm as he watched her closely.

She was looking at him shyly, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. Her wide-eyed expression looked almost hopeful and he wasn't sure how to take that, his pulse increasing a bit. He nearly died when she raised a hand out to him, beckoning him back, because it meant she wasn't rejecting him. _'Jesus….'_

Cyberdoll wasn't sure what she was doing. All she knew was that she was taking a huge leap with her heart and that she did not want Snake Eyes to leave. But words seemed to fail her at the moment so she reached out to him, silently begging for him to stay. She was happy to see that his eyes softened from the blank expression he wore as he slowly approached her bedside. She found it rather humorous and endearing when he let his right hand hesitantly slip into hers because she never thought she would see the strong, silent ninja seem so shy.

Her heartbeat seemed to increase even more at the feeling of his gloved hand. She found her body beginning to shake as she brought it closer to her persons. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, as she completely let his hand cover the area over her heart, open palm. Both of her hands held it tightly in place to keep him from moving away. She opened her eyes, hoping that he got her message; the ball was in his court now.

Snake Eyes stared wide-eyes at the technician below him. Had he not been a strong man he was sure that he would have fallen to his knees. It was almost too much, scary and awe inspiring at the same time. Oh, he got her message, got it loud and clear.

She was telling him that if she wanted, he could have her heart. And God, did he want it.

But he also had to make her understand that this wasn't one-sided as she thought. So, carefully, he reached out with his free hand, letting his mask drop to the floor, to lightly grasp her right hand. A small look of panic crossed her face as he removed it from his other hand but he gave her a small smile of reassurance as he brought it to his own chest, mimicking her own action of placing it over his heart.

Cyberdoll's eyes widened and he feared he might have misinterpreted her meaning until the biggest smile crossed her face. It was so warming, too honest in a way, and he hadn't really expected to see a smile like that on her face for a while because of her traumatic experience. But he felt like he was on top of the world at that moment because _he _was the one to put it there.

Impulsively he leaned forward until his lips were inches away from hers, where he paused. Using the last of body strength, she managed to push her upper body forward, closing her eyes, as their lips met. Snake Eyes closed his eyes and added more pressure into the kiss but mindful that she was still weak.

Cyberdoll could feel the restrained passion as his rough lips moved across her soft ones. It was an odd feeling but not unpleasant, adding to the indescribable happy feeling that exploded in her chest as she _finally _got to kiss the man she loved. She couldn't have known Snake Eyes was feeling the same way as he pulled away so they could look each other in the eyes, with goofy smiles on their faces.

"Stay?" she asked quietly.

He nodded.

Gently, careful with her injury, he pushed her over a bit until he could lay his body out and on his left side. To make himself more comfortable, he wrapped his left arm under her neck and shoulders. After a lingering kiss on her forehead, he rested his head on top of hers and intertwined his free hand with her right one. He heard her sigh and couldn't help a feeling of content fall over him.

Right now, there was no Joe, no Cobra, no problems. Yes, both of them knew there were going to be trials ahead, trying to deal with their new found relationship and trying to help Cyberdoll recover. But at that moment, just the two of them intertwined, they let the world fade into the background.

* * *

_Epilogue_

Duke strode purposefully through the halls of the _U.S.S. Flagg. _He had just finished a team leader meeting with General Hawk and the other team leaders and was about to meet his own team in the Mess Hall for lunch. He smiled still almost not believing two years had almost gone by. They had been tough years but everyone at Joe had pulled through like always.

Coming through the Mess Hall doors, he was immediately greeted by a round of riotous laughter. He looked in the far right corner of the room where it had originated from to see Delta and Alpha teams gathered around a table. Duke didn't understand until he drew closer to see Snake Eyes and Cyberdoll at the center of it all, the ninja not showing any signs of emotion while the nightshift technician had her head down, which Duke bet was red as a tomato.

Duke tried to hold back his own chuckle. It wasn't any secret that the two of them were in a relationship and they seemed to the brunt of all the teasing since Cyberdoll's return a couple of weeks ago.

After the rescue mission of Cyberdoll and her initial treatment, Hawk had sent the technician home on temporary leave when it was learned that, with the right amount of treatment and time, she could come back to her original position. It had taken a long time, and a lot of physical and mental therapy from what Snake Eyes had reluctantly admitted whenever he came back from seeing her, for her to return. But once it was ok, the Joe family had welcomed her back with open arms.

For all intents and purposes it seemed that Cyberdoll was doing well in getting back into the swing of things. Technically she was still going through reinstatement but she was still listed as a non-combatant so her training wasn't as intense as combatant Joes and she was doing well on nightshift again. But most could see, some days, that she favored her right leg when she walked. Nobody said anything or treated her like she was glass though, and Duke saw her appreciative looks at that.

Her relationship with Snake eyes was also strong, giving her a good support system when she needed it. Nobody needed to ask if they were in love, everyone saw it in the way they looked at each other as the two of them continued on with their duties. It just wasn't needed.

As Duke approached the table, he was drawn from his thoughts when he heard Rain say, "Ah, come on! It's been two years! You can't tell me that you guys haven't had sex just once! So what is it? A flower? A butterfly?"

Ah, Rain was still trying to figure out what Cyberdoll's mysterious tattoo is.

Taking a seat, with a nod of greeting to everyone, he watched Cyberdoll raise her head and send her best friend a glare. "If it is," she furiously whispered, "it's not your concern!"

"How is it not my concern if my best friend is having sex or not?" Rain countered with a pout.

Cyberdoll frowned while Snake Eyes remained stoic, though Duke could see one of his arms positioned away from his body toward the technician, probably resting a hand on her knee.

"Rain, you're not going to get any answers," Ripcord called at the end of the table with an arm wrapped around Scarlett's shoulders.

"Well we could always talk about _your _sex life," Heavy Duty joked, nudging Rain with his elbow as he sent her a wink.

Rain looked positively gleeful. For their parts, Ripcord and Scarlett kept their faces neutral though their faces turned a nice shade of red. Cyberdoll sighed before finishing her food and making a move to stand.

"Where are you going?" Rain asked, sounding disappointed.

"To take a nap, I don't want to be tired when I go on my shift."

"Hmmmm… bet Snake Eyes is the reason why you're so tired too," Rain said in a leery way, wiggling her eyebrows at the pair. Ignoring Cyberdoll's blood red face she went one, "But go to sleep. I can have Breaker talk to you later tonight anyway."

Breaker protested loudly at keeping him out of this as Cyberdoll made her way to drop off her dirty dishes. Snake Eyes didn't get up and follow but Duke bet he was watching her the entire time.

"_So, _Snake Eyes…," Rain said, leaning forward with a teasing smile on her lips. "About that tattoo…."

At first Duke wasn't sure the team ninja was going to answer as he too stood up. Unable to read any emotions from him, Duke wasn't sure what was going through his friend's head as he turned to leave but abruptly stopped.

Snake Eyes stood there for a moment before reaching into one of his pockets and pulling out a notepad and pen. He quickly jotted something down before tearing the paper off. He folded it and tossed it towards Rain before briskly walking away.

Curiously, Duke waited until Rain grabbed the piece of paper and opened it. Slowly, the biggest shit-eating-smile crossed her face before she busted out laughing. "I knew it! I fucking knew! They are sleeping together!"

The paper fell from her grasp and onto the table as she continued to laugh where Duke nabbed it. Reading the note, Duke couldn't help but smile; yep, they were sleeping together but now Rain was going to be ten times worse.

_"Give you a hint: It's not a flower or a butterfly."_

* * *

Snake Eyes raced out of the Mess Hall just as he heard Rain's laughter. He didn't really want to be around for more questioning but hoped that kept her off Cyberdoll's back for a while. Taking a right he quickly made his way down the hall, making a beeline for his love's room. He didn't make it far though, catching up to her real quick in a random hall.

When she saw him, she gave him a heartwarming smile as he came to stand next to her. She looked at him for a moment before the smile dropped into a pout. "You told, didn't you?"

Snake Eyes didn't know how, and only could guess it was from their close relationship, but she could read him like a book, even in his ninja regalia. Then again, he could do the same to her, like when her left knee hurt though she said it didn't, so it really didn't bother him.

He shook his head and Cyberdoll looked at him skeptically before pushing up her glasses with a huff and turning to walk off.

Snake Eyes didn't like it when Cyberdoll was upset with him, so he followed until they were crossing a darkened hallway. Using his ninja training, he quickly snatched her and brought her into the shadows. Before she could protest, he lifted the end of his mask until it passed his lips and smashed their mouths together, this time not holding back and even adding a little tongue. He smirked when she sighed into the kiss, molding her body against his.

He pulled back but wrapped one of his arms around her waist to keep her in place as his other hand drifted to her right hip where he knew a lock in a shape of heart tattoo was. He smirked because it matched his own recent tattoo that rested in the same area, though his was a heart shaped key. Their best kept secret that only they knew about.

In the little lighting he had, he saw a playful smile on her face as his hand circled her hip before a giggle escaped her lips. She laid her head on his chest while her arms snaked around his waist as she snuggled closer. And, to anyone else it would be a surprise, he responded by snuggling against her. Words were never needed, though he had signed it to her on occasion just as she said it to him. No, their bodies and souls spoke much more volumes, and through high water and hell fire they both would make it and protect each other.

_"Love you, forever and always."_

* * *

***Frowns* For some reason this feels very rushed to me but honestly, this is how I pictured the end of the story. I hope you all liked. **

**Just to let you all know, this is probably the only story I will do for this fandom. Honestly, I wrote it when I saw the first movie but now... well let's just say I fell out of the fandom. The only thing I really plan on doing with this story, one day, is going back and fixing all the mistakes and maybe adding some stuff. **

**MUCH LOVE MY PRETTIES! AND ONE LAST TIME, REVIEW! PLEASE!**


	16. To all my readers

**Dear Readers,**

**I feel like I didn't properly thank you for how awesome you all are for favoriting and writing reviews for this story. SO I WANT TO SAY THANK YOU ALL FOR MAKING THIS AN AWESOME STORY! I never expected this story do so well even AFTER it was finished! You all are fantastic and it makes me so happy when I still see notifications that end up in my email about the story. Words can't even express properly how I feel about all this except to say THANK YOU SO MUCH! *gives big hug to each and every one of you***

**THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH,**

**Malakia**


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